Ileeya's Thorn
by Similyn
Summary: All she wanted was to gather some herbs. Someone else had other ideas. Follow Ileeya as fate wraps its tendrils around the young night elf, her family, and her captor.
1. Chapter 1

"Are you ready, yet?" Ileeya glanced at the tall night elf and his father. Jelune had promised to go with her to go find more herbs in Darkshore this morning. She rarely got to get away from Teldrassil and she couldn't wait to leave. Ileeya's teal green hair was pulled back in a pony tail as wisps of her bangs hung to each side of her face. Jelune merely glanced in her direction as he finished telling his father about how far they had planned on going to gather the plants. Firodren Mooncaller also glanced at Ileeya, giving her an admonishing look to remind her to be patient. Although the store was in need of more herbs to sell to the various citizens and guests of Darnassus, it wasn't in dire straits and therefore no hurry to get them.

"Patience, Child. You two can go as soon as I finish giving Jelune here a list of herbs needed," the elder kaldorei told Ileeya. Ileeya's father and Firodren had been best friends since childhood and both night elves helped raise each other's children. This was common practice, especially since many kaldorei were druids who slept for long periods of time as they walked the Emerald Dream. Ileeya was lucky to have spent most of her childhood with her father. His turn to walk the Dream came when she was 106 years old. Granted she's been an adult in physical capacity for many, many years now, but her learning and training have yet to be completed. And until such a time as that, she was considered a child by many of the Kaldorei. Jelune, on the other hand, had finished his learning and has moved on to learn the skills of the hunter.

Firodren, admittedly, was a little disappointed that Jelune had not gone into the family business of herbalism. However, he supported Jelune in his chosen class. Of course, it did help a little that Ileeya had become interested in the world of plants ever since she was very little. Still, Jelune had learned much about herbs from his father and was able to help out here and there. The elder herbalist depended more and more on his son and adopted daughter to gather the herbs to sell since he was needed to stay and train new herbalists in the way of the plants. He finished the list and handed it to Jelune. "Remember, Jelune, you can help spot the plants, but let Ileeya gather them. She knows more than you now. You know what your job is."

Ileeya held back a sigh and turned to leave, expecting Jelune to follow. She knew what his job was as well, though she bristled at the thought. Jelune had been 'assigned' to protect his little sister. First, it was from the wild animals in Teldrassil's forests as she hunted for herbs. Now it's to protect her from dangerous people she might come across in Darkshore. Ileeya didn't mind Jelune's company. He was a great big brother. But she wanted a bit of independence sometimes. Because of this, she begged her father, before he went to sleep in the Emerald Dream, to teach her just a bit of druidism to protect herself.

It was highly unusual for a kaldorei to begin training in a specific class before they finish their core lessons, but not unheard of. Yet, she had been able to convince Dormir of teaching her at least some defensive spells. Ileeya learned to cast various spells on herself. She could magically have thorns sprout from her skin, call upon roots to wrap around people and keep them in place, force hibernation in animals and dragonkin, and cast a simple rejuvenating spell should she get hurt. This had proved helpful already, but her father did not have the time to teach her any more before answering the call to walk the Dream. Since he slept, she tried to teach herself some other druidic spells, but could only seem to manage to ask a plant to grow a little faster. That didn't help much for defending herself, though.

"We need to stop by the stables on the way out." Jelune's voice brought her out of her reverie and she looked up at him. His strong facial features were surrounded by his long dark blue hair. He was only ten years older than she was, but he tended to act older than that.

"Which pet are you bringing today?" She asked, hoping it was Sabine. Sabine was a beautiful white spotted saber cat that she had a particular fondness for. Jelune also had a grey wolf named Storm, and an owl named Sosha.

Jelune looked down at her with half a smile. "Sabine." His half-grin bloomed into a full grin as Ileeya beamed.

...

The ride on the half horse, half bird hippogryphs had been exhilarating to Ileeya. She loved those animals, despite how dangerous they can be if attacked. Reaching into her pack, she checked to see if the flight master wasn't looking and then gave the creature a dried bit of fish. The hippogryph was careful not to nick her hand as he took it and gulped it down quickly. "I saw that, Ileeya."

The young herbalist gave the Lor'danel flight master a guilty smile. "Sorry. Can't help it!"

Jelune guided his sister from the flight master's admonishing look towards the inn where they will get some supplies and rent a couple mounts. As they were doing this, Ranger Glynda Nal'Shea came up to them. "I hear you two plan to go flower-picking."

Ileeya nodded her head as Jelune said, "We plan to stay within the vicinity between Lor'Danel and..." he paused and looked away from the sentinel ranger. "...Auberdine." Auberdine had been a bustling and thriving Night Elf town, but had been demolished in the recent shattering of Azeroth.

The ranger's grim face nodded once as memories flashed in her mind of friends lost. She got over it quickly though as she spoke again. "Now isn't a good time to go out into the Darkshore forests alone. Can it wait?"

Ileeya shook her head before Jelune could speak, lest he agree with the ranger. "I'm afraid we are low on herbs and our father needs them for his shop and for training his students." Jelune gave her a warning look, but remained quiet.

The ranger could order her sentinels not to go somewhere, but she couldn't order the citizens unless there was immediate danger. With a sigh, Nal'Shea said, "Then, I'm afraid I can't let you two go alone. We've had reports of horde raiding parties near Auberdine looking for supplies and generally causing trouble. Though it's been quiet over there of late. I'll still feel better if I send one of my sentinels with you to help keep you safe." The ranger's look brooked no argument and Ileeya and Jelune did not protest. After all, the sentinel probably wouldn't get in the way of their picking plants.

**...**

"Here!" Jelune called out to Ileeya as he looked at an earthroot growing seemingly out of a rock. Ileeya came over and skillfully scratched around the small crack that the earthroot was growing out of and then gently tugged on the herb. It came out almost willingly for her. Jelune shook his head in wonder. He had tried to pull it out himself before calling her over, and the earthroot refused to budge for him. Jelune's silver eyes glanced around the area. They had gone a little too far off the path than he would have liked, but they were definitely finding more herbs over here. The sentinel who came with them had remained quiet. She wasn't much of a conversationalist. She only gave her name, Yeleeris, when Ileeya asked. Jelune took the opportunity to look at the third member of their little party. She was quite serious about her duty and was constantly looking and listening for anything out of the ordinary, though she also seemed to have a bored look on her face. Jelune shrugged to himself and looked for some more herbs.

The trio was situated a bit closer to Auberdine than the sentinel would have liked. Despite it being quiet lately, it didn't mean that the horde were finished with their raiding and pilfering of ruined town. She glanced at the two herbalists engrossed in their search and sighed. She'd rather be back at Lor'Danel. Still, it was a break from the same routine she's had ever since the shattering. She adjusted her position on the large night saber that served as her mount. The other two night sabers, having no riders at the moment, were lying down quietly waiting for them to return. Yeleeris took another glance around. The brush and trees were a little thicker here, making it hard to see if trouble might be coming. But her eyes were not her only means of detecting trouble. And it was her ears that first picked up on the subtle difference in the forest. She couldn't pinpoint it right away. Then she glanced up. The birds. They were quiet. In the distance, there was a flock flying away. Yeleeris tensed and darted her eyes to the other two. "Wrap it up, you two!" She ordered.

Ileeya looked up, a bit surprised at the order. She glanced over at Jelune who also seemed to be standing still, looking around as though something were not right. Ileeya paused for a moment, undecided whether she should look for something as well, or try to gather just a few more herbs before they had to leave. She didn't question the sentinel's order, but just one or two more herbs should do it. After all, the sentinel said to wrap it up, not drop everything and go. The younger kaldorei spotted some briarthorn and grinned. This doesn't grow in Teldrassil so it will be more than welcomed by Firodren. She knelt down beside the tree that the herb grew next to and began to quickly unearth it. If she can bring it back with it's roots intact and some of it's home soil, perhaps she and Firodren can coax it to grow in their little herb garden in his shop by the temple.

_Ahh, there we go_. Ileeya stood up triumphantly with the briarthorn and held it up to show Jelune. Her look of triumph quickly turned to terror as she saw a huge figure leaping towards the sentinel! Ileeya let out a piercing scream as her brother ran towards her and took up a defensive stance with his bow and arrows. Yeleeris raised her glaive and deflected the blow of the orc that had attacked her, but in doing so, fell off her mount. She quickly recovered and was able to wound the orc with a fast slash of her glaive across his chest. The orc weakened, the sentinel was able to turn the tide of their fight and pressed on against the green-skinned intruder. Had he been alone, she would have won the fight. Unfortunately, he was not alone.

A lightening bolt flashed from the direction the orc had come from and hit the sentinel square on. Yeleeris was knocked back flat onto her back. The orc turned his attention to Jelune and Ileeya, a scowl of hatred on his tusked face. Jelune raised his bow and arrow. He had never shot a sentient being before, but knew there was no room for queasiness. Before he had the chance to shoot his arrow, however, the orc gave a fast look of surprise, stiffened, then fell over face down. The sentinel's glaive deep in his back. Yeleeris slowly stood up, her teeth gritted in pain.

Another lightening bolt and the sentinel was back on the ground, this time perhaps, for good. Jelune let out his own cry of anger and shot his arrows in the direction of the trees and underbrush where the shaman's lightening bolts had come from. "Ileeya! Run!" he called out as two more orcs and a blood elf emerged.

The young elf turned to run, then stopped. "What about you!" She was on the verge of tears. She wanted to run far away from all this bloodshed, but neither did she want to leave Jelune to fight them by himself...not that she could fight at all. Jelune turned his head just enough to tell her to run again when a throwing knife hit him in the shoulder and he fell. By this time, Sabine and the other night saber mounts had jumped into the fray creating an unintentional distraction from the kaldorei long enough for Ileeya to kneel down to where Jelune had fallen. He was wounded, but not fatally. Could she heal his wound? Her father had taught her to heal herself, but not others. There was no other option but to try! It couldn't be much different. Ileeya whispered the spell, asking of the natural world to heal her brother as she and he together pulled the knife out of his shoulder. A deep growl from her brother caught her attention and she looked at his face. He was in pain, but also pleading with her. "By the love of Elune! Flee! I can't save myself if I have to protect you! Get back to Lor'Danel!" he said in a low voice.

With the horde distracted by the cats, Ileeya turned and ran. She ran as fast as her legs would take her, deftly jumping over raised roots, ducking under low branches and skirting around various shrubbery and trees. Should she head towards the road? There was more chance of coming across travelers or even a sentinel. Or should she stay in the forest where she could more easily meld into the shadows and hide. Ileeya quickly decided on the latter option. She kept running until she felt she was far enough away, then rounded a large tree with some bushes beside it and dove for cover underneath, letting herself become one with the shadows.

She sat there as still as possible, breathing hard from her run and listening. Did they follow her? Did they see her go? Ileeya buried her face in her knees as she worried over Jelune. Was he okay? Did he get away? He said he couldn't save himself if he had to save her. She wasn't a hunter. She didn't know what he could do. How long should she wai-

"Kaldorei!"

The voice spoke in Darnassian.

"I know you're here."

Ileeya's heart thudded rapidly against her chest as she tried to hold her breath. She glanced furtively out of the bush. Coming into view from above, the blood elf was on something that looked like a lion with webbed wings. It was a wyrven flying mount that hovered in one spot as the elf scanned the area. She guessed that he was bluffing. He had to be.

"Come out now and I promise you I won't kill you."

He turned her way, but didn't look directly at her. A minute later, he started to look in another direction, moving his mount back up and out of her view from under the bush. Ileeya stayed where she was, tears unwillingly flowing down her face. She hugged her legs tighter. Is he gone? Slowly, she let out her breath and tried to will herself to relax, with little success. What now? Stay hiding? Run?

Ileeya nearly jumped out of her skin when she heard the sin'dorei's voice again, this time much closer.

"We have your hunter." The sin'dorei was right next to the tree that she and the bush were beside. "Perhaps we'll spare him, too. But only if you come out now. For all I know, the orcs may have finished with him. But, I'm sure I can convince them otherwise if he's still alive by the time we get back there. So I suggest you reveal yourself now."

Ileeya glanced up into the leaves of the bush, hoping to get a look at the sky. She prayed to Elune, asking what she should do now. No divine answer was forthcoming. Jelune said he could get away without her. Did he? Or do the horde really have him? In the end, she couldn't see any other choice. Shakily, she left the shadowy place and exited the bush, looking around for the blood elf. A hand shot out and grabbed her arm, roughly spinning her around. Face to face with her captor, she looked at his green eyes, clean-shaven face, and long pale blond hair that hung to his chest. He wore the robes of a mage and was just slightly taller than she was. He seemed to study her for a moment and then nodded to himself giving a self-satisfied smirk. "You'll do."

Do? Do for what? She tried to swallow her fear away, but it seemed stuck in her chest and throat. Thus, she just stood mutely as he tied up her hands and then tied the rope to his mount. The wyrven didn't seem to like being forced to walk, but it obeyed the blood elf. Ileeya was led back to where they had been ambushed. A prisoner with no clue as to what her future held now.


	2. Chapter 2

Jelune kept himself camouflaged as he ran as quickly as he could towards Lor'Danel. He stuck closer to the edge of the forest that was near the sea. It was easier for him to move there. Sabine, whose coat wasn't as white anymore, kept pace with him. Their former mounts, however, were gone. They provided enough of a distraction though for Jelune to make his escape. With Ileeya somewhere ahead of him he grimaced at the thought of the sentinel. If she was alive, she wouldn't be by the time the orcs finished with the sabers. After what seemed like an eternity, the hunter finally arrived at the newly-formed town, rushing towards the inn when he didn't see Ileeya right away. He had to catch his breath, and motioned for the innkeeper to give him something to drink. A quick swig of the mug of water and he was finally able to inquire about his sister, so sure she would be here. When Innkeeper Kyteran told him she wasn't there, Jelune slammed his fist on the counter, letting out a kaldorei curse.

Jelune quickly turned and ran back out of the inn and spotted Ranger Nal'Shea coming towards him. The hunter blurted out everything that had happened as soon as he reached her, but the ranger shook her head and told him to slow down because she could hardly understand him. He then reiterated his tale more slowly and ended with, "and now Ileeya could be captured, or..or.." He cut himself short, not wanting to think of the second option.

Ranger Nal'Shea quickly gave orders for five of her sentinels to follow her and Jelune back to the spot on hippogryphs. As they flew back, Jelune kept his eyes peeled for Ileeya just in case he had missed seeing her among the trees, but she was nowhere in sight.

**...**

"Where is he?" The blood elf asked the question as soon as he and Ileeya returned to the place where Ileeya had been gathering herbs. She didn't understand what he was upset about because he had spoken orcish. But, the first thing she looked for was Jelune. She didn't see him anywhere. He escaped. A wave of relief washed over her. But a tug on her rope brought her back to the reality of her own predicament. The sin'dorei and the orcs were in some sort of argument and Ileeya wanted to just run away and hide from the glares the orcs were giving her. She could only guess they were upset about Jelune getting away.

The two orcs made a sudden move towards Ileeya and she backed up, but only a couple of steps as the rope was not very long. The first orc reached her and pulled on her green hair asking her a question in orcish. Ileeya tried hard not to whimper and couldn't help but fear the orc was going to bite her head off. The blood elf's voice came from behind the orcs. "He wants to know where the hunter is." Ileeya shook her head ever so briefly, which the orc seemed to think was her refusal to answer. "I don't know! I DON'T KNOW!" She cried over and over until the sin'dorei translated for her. The orc let her go in disgust and gave what sounded like an order to the small group. The orcs glanced above them and began to gather their weapons and other belongings.

The elf turned to Ileeya, looking in her eyes. "We're leaving." His hand touched her temple and he uttered a word in Thalassian. The world faded away as Ileeya suddenly fell asleep.

**...**

"We're almost there!" shouted Jelune to the ranger. He prayed to Elune they would be in time to save Ileeya. As they arrived, Jelune could see the dead orc and sentinel, but no others. The survivors were gone and with them, possibly Ileeya. The ranger motioned for the party to land and they did as she asked. She surveyed the area and searched the ground motioning Jelune over. "Can you track?"

Jelune blinked. In his panic, he'd temporarily forgotten he could do that and forced himself to nod his head. He hoped Nal'Shea couldn't see his skin darken in embarrassment as he began looking for tracks where the orcs went. They walked for awhile before he started to notice how much fresher the tracks he was following were. They were catching up! He could barely contain his eagerness to rush forward. Even a greenhorn like himself knew better than to just rush in among enemies. Shortly, they came to two orcs moving south through the trees, carrying a few bags of items most likely pilfered from the Auberdine ruins. There was no sign of Ileeya. Ahead, Jelune could see a boat on the beach. So that's how they had gotten there. He and the ranger made hand signals to communicate. They wanted the orcs caught alive for questioning.

On her signal, Ranger Nal'Shea rushed forward, shooting her bow to distract the two orcs. Jelune followed suit and the two orcs turned swiftly around. Raising their axes, they gave a warcry and charged the ranger and hunter. Had they continued with their charge, they would have gotten at least a good swing in on the two elves. However, Nal'Shea's and Jelune's distraction worked perfectly as the five sentinels, still on their hippogryphs descended down on the charging orcs, the hippogryphs sharp talons quickly attempting to tear at the two raiders. Surrounded, they had nowhere to run, but they still fought for all they were worth. The orcs were determined to not be captured. In the end, one orc was captured, only because he had been knocked unconscious by a blow to the head by the back hoof of a hippogryph. The other orc had been killed.

"Tie him up and put him on the back of your hippogryph," Nal'Shea told one of the sentinels. "Take him to Darnassus. We'll heal his wounds and question him there."

Jelune glanced from the orc to the ranger shaking his head. "We need to question him now! Here! I need to find out what happened to my sister!"

Nal'Shea gave the hunter a hard look. "I warned you not to go out here in the first place! We can't interrogate an unconscious orc! He's barely alive as it is. Let the priestesses do their job. They can heal him...then interrogate him. They have ways of learning things even if the orc doesn't want to cooperate. Now, out of my way!"

Jelune watched her walk away and he growled in frustration. She was right. He cursed and went in search of his mount. There was no other choice.

**...**

Ileeya felt the breeze on her face and a gentle rocking motion. She was leaning on something hard. Did she fall asleep outside again? She opened her eyes and nearly fell off in surprise. She was riding on a wyrven. Her hands were bound and there were two strong arms on either side of her, guiding the creature. In a flash, it all came back to her. The herb gathering, the attack, fleeing, and finally allowing herself to be caught.

"You're awake," the voice of the blood elf rumbled behind her. "Good. Now you can keep yourself balanced." She sat still, not liking her situation one bit. The overwhelming terror she felt earlier had toned down, but she was still scared and knew the terror would probably return. Ileeya glanced around, unsure of where they were or how long they had been flying. The first thing to come to mind, of course, was escape. She had time, it seemed. The sin'dorei wasn't very talkative, which suited her just fine. She tossed around ideas of how to get away. None of which would work while they were in the air. But she at least had a plan for once they landed...provided they landed somewhere other than a major horde settlement.

It was a couple of hours later when she felt him guide the wyrven down and she glanced down to see an orc settlement nestled in some woods. Hmm...IF she could get away from him, and IF she could reach the forest, she could hide in the shadows. It wasn't much of a plan, but she had to try. She studied the area below as they began to land and mapped out her escape route in her head. Just as the beast landed, with her fearful heart pumping adrenaline, Ileeya cast a quick spell upon herself and sharp thorns grew out of her skin, surprising her captor. Feeling him automatically move away from her thorns, she quickly jumped off the wyrven and ran towards some crates piled on top of each other beside a building. An orc guard rushed towards her and she cast the second spell that she knew. The guard found himself surrounded by roots and he had to use his axe to try and free himself. This bought Ileeya a few seconds. She jumped on top of the crates and pulled herself up onto the roof of the orc building. Just a few more feet and she can jump over the wooden wall and into the trees beyond.

A blast of cold caught her unawares and she suddenly couldn't move her feet. Ileeya fell forward, using her still bound arms to break her fall. What happened? Why can't she move her feet? She rolled onto her back and glanced down to see her feet literally frozen in an ice block. The sin'dorei flew up to the roof. He and the wyrven landed next to her. Her captor had nicks and cuts over part of his face and arms from the thorns, and he didn't look happy about it. The mage jumped off the animal and leaned close to her, anger clearly written all over his face. "There's no escaping me." His voice was a low hiss. He grabbed her hands and lifted her into a sitting position. "Never!" He paused for emphasis. "Never try to escape again. Or I'll be forced to use more than just a trap to stop you!"

Ileeya could only sit in fear. She couldn't even nod or shake her head. What in the world made her think she could escape a frost mage? The orc she had rooted earlier finally freed himself and ran enraged up the crates and to the roof. The sin'dorei shouted to him in orcish, probably telling him he has her under control again. The orc didn't seem to care. He apparently didn't like being rooted and missing out on the chase. A voice from below stopped the orc. From the sound of it, a superior. The unrooted orc gave a growl and turned around to climb back off the roof.

As she watched the orc leave, Ileeya felt something be put around her neck and her eyes flew back to the blood elf as a part of her started to feel a little bit weaker. "No more thorns or roots or whatever else you may have up your sleeve, kaldorei." Ileeya's hands flew to her neck and felt what seemed to be a plain metal collar with a single jewel embedded in it. The mage tapped the jewel. "That keeps you from doing any magic." Without preamble, he lifted her over his shoulder and jumped off the roof, casting a spell to slow his fall. The mount flew down to settle in with other wyrven near what she assumed was the horde flight master.

She was lead into a building, up some stairs and into a room. Ileeya glanced around nervously. She didn't know what to expect and eyed the sin'dorei with caution. He had thrown his bag onto a table and then conjured some food and water. With barely a glance in her direction, he threw some of the bread in her direction. Ileeya didn't bother to even try to catch it. Instead she just stood there staring at him as he sat down on a chair and crossed his feet to rest on the seat of the other chair. He looked at his prisoner, studying her. "I don't care if you eat or not," he said with an air of indifference. Ileeya looked at the bread which had fallen on the floor next to her. Her stomach growled, but she was loathe to pick it up. The mage gave an amused grin as he chewed his food. Ileeya thought about it for a few minutes, then with a glare in his direction, she reached down and picked the bread off the floor. She examined it and brushed off any dust that may or may not have been there, then proceeded to eat. She ignored her grinning captor.

After a long time of silence, the blood elf began to examine his fingernails and said nonchalantly, "Tomorrow we head to Ratchet and will take the first boat to Booty Bay. It'll take a few days of travel, but once we are there, I'll sell you to the highest bidder and be off with my gold." He looked rather pleased with himself. Ileeya glanced at the door, but didn't dare try to escape. She was too scared of what he would do should she fail.

The mage then stood as a knock came to the door. Opening the door, there was a short, but intense discussion with an orc. The green-skinned orc glanced in her direction with a distrusting glare as he spoke to the mage. Finally, the orc grunted and left. The mage closed the door. "He doesn't like you here. He thinks you'll try to escape." The blood elf's eyes narrowed as he crooned, "but I don't think you'll do that, will you, my dear?" Not bothering to wait for an answer, he turned from her and began casting a spell. Ileeya jumped back when a large water elemental suddenly appeared. The sin'dorei's cold voice commanded the elemental, "Guard her! She's not to leave this room..." He then glanced at her with a smirk. "...or come near me." After that, he removed his robe revealing a cream colored tunic underneath and some gold pants. He then removed his shoes and climbed into bed. "Get some sleep, kaldorei. You'll need it." He then turned his back to her and relaxed to go to sleep. It was obvious he did _not_ consider her a threat at all.

Ileeya stared at the frost elemental, sure she wouldn't be able to sleep tonight just because of it's presence. It watched her without blinking and it creeped her out. Eventually, she grew tired of standing and sat down on the floor as there was no place else for her to sleep and there was no way she would share the bed with the blood elf...not that she would be able to in the first place with the water elemental ordered to not let her near him. Ileeya rested her bound wrists on her knees and leaned back against the wall. Once more tears fell from her eyes. She was to be sold into slavery, she assumed. She could only hope that whoever bought her would be easier to escape from than the frost mage.


	3. Chapter 3

"Wake up!"

Ileeya felt something fall onto her lap and she groggily opened her eyes. She was leaning back against the wall, her head at an awkward angle. She must have fallen asleep at some point last night. Lifting her head, she gave a wince at the painful kink in her neck and looked at her lap. Another chunk of bread. Ileeya's mouth was already dry enough. She hadn't had anything to drink since yesterday. The young night elf looked up at the mage who was putting on his robe. The elemental was no where to be seen. "Wa-" Her voice caught in her dry throat. She swallowed and tried again. "Water?"

The mage stopped what he was doing and looked over at her, a scowl on his face at first, but quickly replaced by his self-satisfied smile. He came over to her and leaned on one knee right in front of her. She wanted to back up, but her back was already against the wall as it was. His head moved close so that his mouth was near her left ear. In a whisper he said, "Say... please."

Ileeya involuntarily shuddered and glared at him, not wanting to do anything he said, but knowing she had to. Through gritted teeth she growled out, "Please."

The sin'dorei conjured a waterskin and dropped it beside her. "There now. That wasn't so bad was it?" Again the confident smirk crossed his face before he turned away from her.

Ileeya grabbed the flask and drank down the water in large gulps. With her thirst satiated, she finally picked up the bread and ate. She would need her strength if she were to escape. No, it wasn't likely she would escape from the frost mage, but who knows. Perhaps an opportunity would present itself. Even if she couldn't get away from him, she would do everything she could to get away from whomever he sold her to. Ileeya's mind flickered to Jelune. Was he coming after her? She assumed, and hoped, that he was.

**...**

Jelune paced back and forth in his father's shop. It was where he told the priestesses he'd be when the orc was ready to be interrogated. The green-skinned pilferer had regained consciousness this morning, but was not talking. The Sister's of Elune had attended to him quietly when they arrived, knowing what was expected of them. The ranger stayed long enough to give her report to the high priestess, Tyrande Whisperwind, then returned to her duty back in Lor'Danel. The kaldorei leader had then come and questioned him, herself. He answered as respectfully as he could while still worrying over his sister. Whisperwind put a hand on his shoulder. "We'll get answers, and you can go after your sister soon." Her words were meant to comfort and he gave a nod in response before she turned and entered the temple again.

"Do you have a plan for rescue once you get your information?" Firodren stood watching his son pace, guilt wracking his face. Ileeya wouldn't be in her situation if he hadn't sent them to Darkshore in the first place. Jelune only shook his head. The senior herbalist greeted a customer who had entered and let his son brood.

The customer glanced at the pacing elf and then looked back to Firodren. "I need some dried peacebloom, please." He looked at his fingers, dirty still from some crushed herbs he had milled to write some glyphs. He was in the middle of writing one of them when to his chagrin, he realized he hadn't enough powder to make the ink. He rubbed his hands on the inside of his robes as he waited for Firodren to retrieve the requested herb and glanced at Jelune again. He'd been coming to this shop ever since arriving in Darnassus and came to consider Firodren a friend, though the herbalist may not think the same of him. Although many highborne had returned from Eldre'Thalas and were allowed to stay in Darnassus, they still had the task of finding acceptance among the more reserved kaldorei. Some of the younger night elves who weren't around at the time of the War of the Ancients, seemed more forgiving and curious about what it meant to become a mage. The others were merely cordial to the highborne.

When Firodren came back with the dried herbs, Mehlumis asked the herbalist if something was the matter, glancing again at Jelune. Firodren gave the mage a cautious look. "It's a family matter."

Mehlumis took this in stride. Acceptance was a slow process. He paid Firodren and said before leaving, "If there's anything I can do, just ask." The mage left.

**...**

They had been flying on the wyrven for about an hour before the woods below changed into the ochre hue of the Barrens. Ileeya had never seen a place so utterly devoid of trees before. She stared down at the barren place and noticed a herd of tall animals making their way across the plains. With the change in scenery came a change in weather. Although there was a cooling breeze from the ride on the winged beast, Ileeya could feel the heat of the place seep into her. Having the sin'dorei's chest up against her back and arms on either side of her didn't help.

The blood elf didn't care for the heat either, but refused to land before reaching Ratchet. The ship he wanted to take was scheduled to leave in a couple of hours. It'll take another hour at least to reach the goblin town and he wanted to get some more supplies before boarding with his prisoner. Kirlothenin Dawnwhisper glanced at the back of the kaldorei's head, pleased with the relative ease it took to capture her.

When he accepted the job to find a night elf female to be auctioned among a group in Booty Bay his immediate thought was to go to the Zoram'gar Outpost and join one of their skirmishes against the kaldorei there. Once there, he had agreed to go on a raiding party with Grok'tor's group, on the condition he could choose one female night elf as his fee for his part in the raid should they come across any resistance. Grok'tor gave the blood elf a disgusted look, but agreed. Although the thought of selling another being into slavery left Kirlothenin with a distasteful feeling in his gut, he ignored it and continued with his mission. He cared for nothing anymore, save himself and gold.

"I need more water." Her voice stirred him from his thoughts and he glanced at her again to see that she had half turned her head to be heard over the wind of their ride. "Please." He smiled to himself. She remembered. Playing mind games with her gave him some amusement in an otherwise boring trip. Still, he didn't want to stop to conjure the water.

"No." He felt her stiffen slightly and turn her head back to face front. "You'll get some when we reach Rachet. No sooner." He kept his voice distant and cool making sure she knew she was in no position to make demands. He was thirsty himself, but denied himself the cool water until they arrived at their destination.

**...**

The bell rang as the ship was sighted in the distance, warning all travelers to be ready to board soon. Ileeya and Kirlothenin both looked up to see the ship approaching. Nothing more had been spoken between the two since her request for water. As promised, the blood elf had conjured up some water to satisfy their thirst as well as some more bread. Once the ship had docked and it's current passengers had left, Kirlothenin lead Ileeya directly to their quarters. There was no interaction with any other passengers, and Ileeya guessed that he didn't want her pleading with anyone to help her, which is what she had secretly hoped to do.

The room they were in was not very big, but had just enough room to move around. There was a single bed, a small table with two chairs and a porthole...too small to climb through. Ileeya felt cramped in the room already. She preferred to be outside, though she doubted he would allow her up on deck. To put some space between herself and the sin'dorei, she moved over to the port window, feeling, rather than seeing his wide, amused grin. They remained in the cabin silently until Ileeya could feel a shift in the gentle rock of the ship and the dock started to disappear as the ship went underway. Ileeya stiffly kept her face towards the windows and willed herself not to cry. She refused to give the blood elf that satisfaction anymore. But it was hard. As they sailed away she realized that there was no chance Jelune would find her now, and one more hope faded.

**...**

Jelune ran quickly through the city on a mission. Just half an hour ago a priestess came to his father's shop to tell him what information had been retrieved from the orc. It took awhile, but the priestesses had used their skills to learn that the orc and his party had come to raid the broken town of Auberdine for supplies. The blood elf that had been with them came not for supplies, but to capture someone. He didn't know why but had assumed, as was the case in many abductions, that he intended to sell her into slavery. Needless to say, this news did not go over well. Slavery, while not officially supported by either faction, was known to exit in certain circles. Jelune asked the priestess where Ileeya would be taken and the priestess said she didn't know, but perhaps one of the rogues in the city may know.

Jelune barely remembered to thank the priestess before he took off towards the Cenarion Enclave, Sosha flying behind him. There was a rogue trainer near the enclave and Jelune slowed down before he approached the entrance to the underground area where the rogue trainer was thought to be. He had heard countless times others telling him to never run towards a rogue. They strike first and then ask questions later. He still walked urgently to a room he had thought the rogue trainer to be. But he saw no one. With a growl, he turned around only to come face to face with a dagger pointed at his neck. The hunter's eyes followed the dagger to the arm that held it and finally to the rogue glaring at him. "You don't belong here, hunter."

Without preamble and hoping the rogue would understand, Jelune quickly explained his situation and asked the rogue for his help. A moment of time passed and the rogue lowered his dagger, sheathing it in his belt. "If what you say is true, there would be no better place to take her than to Booty Bay."

Jelune blinked, a little surprised that the rogue was so quick to help him. "Thank you." He started to walk away then heard the rogue call him back. Thinking he had more information, Jelune turned around silently and waited for the rogue to speak.

"Take this." The rogue tossed something towards him and Jelune caught it. Turning it over in his hand he saw that it was a small medallion. "That's my personal marker. Perhaps it'll come in handy. If it doesn't, I expect it back." At Jelune's questioning gaze, the rogue shrugged and turned to walk away. "I have a sister, too. Now scram!"

The hunter walked more slowly this time as he headed back to his father's shop. Once there, he told the elder Mooncaller what the rogue had told him. "By the time I get to Booty Bay, she'll be gone."

His father had been quiet the whole time and started to speak, then stopped himself. He seemed to be brooding over something before finally coming to a decision. "I have an idea. You won't like it, but there's a chance."

Jelune glanced at his father with a serious look. "Tell me."


	4. Chapter 4

Ileeya sighed in boredom as she reached up to brush away a few wisps of green hair that had fallen from her ponytail. In frustration, she took out the band holding the hair out of her face and let the hair fall about her face. With a grimace, she noted how unclean it was. She guessed it didn't matter. Still, she glanced at the water pitcher and basin on the small table and then eyed the water elemental standing there staring at her in his usual eerie fashion. The sin'dorei had left the room earlier to 'get some fresh air'. Keeping an eye on the water elemental, she eased her way to the table. She didn't like it because it meant being closer to the creature, but she realized that as long as she stayed away from the door, it stayed away from her. Ileeya poured some of the water into the basin and picked up the cake of soap that was nearby. Her wrists were free of the rope as the blood elf probably figured there was nowhere for her to go. Slowly and methodically, she wet her hair and washed it, using up half of the water in the large pitcher to rinse away the suds. Once she was finished, she wrung out her hair, as there were no towels, and began to comb through it with her fingers as best she could. After a bit of fighting with the tangles, she gave up and instead took the sponge and washed her arms and face. She felt more refreshed now at least.

The door opened. A word was spoken in Thalassien. And the water elemental disappeared. The blood elf looked at her and then did a double-take. He seemed to recover quickly as the self-confidant smile that she had grown to hate came over his face. "You didn't have to wash up just for me."

Ileeya graced him with yet another glare and promptly ignored him. Her hair was still wet so she hadn't bothered putting it back into it's usual ponytail. She turned yet again to stare out the window. All she could see was water and sky, but it was better than looking at him. A minute later, she heard a sniff next to her head and she jumped sideways. The blood elf's head had been right next to hers.

"But, I must say you do smell better at least." He backed up, that grin plastered on his face. Ileeya wanted to throw something at him. She looked around her to see what she could throw and found the cake of soap. Quickly picking it up, she raised her hand to throw it. Before she could, however, her arm was caught in a vice-grip. Kirlothenin's left hand held her wrist as his right hand pried the cake of soap out of her hand. He then looked at her weapon of choice and let out a low chuckle. A mischievous grin crossed his face as he let her wrist go.

"Well, you could have just _said _something." He backed up a step and began to remove his robe. Ileeya looked at him in confusion at first, but as soon as he started to remove his shirt, her silver eyes began to grow wide as she clued in to what he was doing. She quickly moved back to her spot underneath the window as the mage, now shirtless, picked up the sponge and started to wash his own arms and chest. As he started on his own hair he glanced in her direction, the ever-present grin planted on his face. "Enjoying the view?"

Ileeya realized she had been staring and turned her head from him, trying to focus her mind on one of her many escape plans instead. Ten minutes later, she heard him approach. She was ready for him this time. She won't let him startle her anymore if she could help it! Kirlothenin leaned over her once more, still shirtless. "Do I smell any better now?" he cooed, amusement tinging his voice.

It was Kirlothenin's turn to be surprised as even before he saw her move, he felt the slap across his face. His green eyes went from amused to angry in a flash and he stood straighter, lifting his arm to backhand her. The kaldorei's arms went up to protect herself from his wrath and he stopped himself just in time. With a growl, he turned and left the room, slamming the door shut. He should have hit her! She deserved it! Kirlothenin marched down the hallway that lead to the upper deck, dismissing the thought deep inside telling him that he probably deserved the slap for his constant teasing. He suddenly stopped his walking, realizing he hadn't summoned the water elemental to guard her. Turning around, he saw the door slowly open. He quickly stepped back into a crevice. The only way out was the hallway and she would have to go past him to escape. Even if she did get past him, there really was no place for her to go except into the sea. However, there were other people aboard who would either try to help her or take her from him.

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw movement. He quickly reached out and grabbed her, pulling her close to him in the crevice. A quick spell silenced her scream and his green eyes bore into her silver ones. She struggled in his grip as he turned and dragged her back to their room. Tossing her inside, he shut the door and locked it before turning to face her again. "That was stupid, kaldorei." he growled as he approached her and this time backhanded her. It took all his presence of mind to temper his hit so as not to hurt her more than just a sting. _Why pull his punches_? He thought to himself. _If he was supposed to be a hardened bounty hunter. Why should he care if she was bruised. _

He moved over to sit on the bed, leaning against the wall and watching her curl up in a corner, cradling her injured cheek. Despite his best efforts, guilt crept up on him. Until this day, he had not hit a woman who couldn't defend herself. Yet, this was the life he had chosen for himself after...

Kirlothenin stood up grabbing his robe that he had discarded earlier. He summoned his water elemental this time, and left the room. He emerged from below deck to the darkening sky outside. The fresh air helped to calm him a little as he went over in his mind what it took to be a bounty hunter, and why he became one in the first place. He didn't want to care about anything again. He repeated a mantra over and over in his mind until he felt himself convinced of not having a caring emotion in his body.

It was late when he eventually returned to his room, the kaldorei refused to look at him. That was fine with him. He prepared himself for bed and lay down. He was nearly asleep when he realized she was still silenced from his earlier spell. With a sigh, he muttered in Thalassian and the spell was removed.


	5. Chapter 5

Ileeya felt the bread drop in her lap. She didn't pick it up. She didn't open her eyes. She just wanted to pretend to be asleep. In her mind, she reviewed what had happened the night before. The blood elf had lost his temper. Well, so had she, else she would never have dared to slap him. But for some reason, she didn't think he would hit her back. What a stupid notion. She heard some shuffling around and then the sudden and familiar whoosh of the water elemental being summoned. Ileeya waited until she heard the door open and shut before opening her eyes. She picked up the bread and set it aside, not hungry at the moment.

Standing up, the night elf stretched to get the kinks out of her body and finally sat back down on the edge of the bed, staring at the chunk of bread. She began to comb through her hair with her fingers as she thought about her current situation. They should arrive in Booty Bay late this afternoon. Before now, she had only ever been to Teldrassil, Darkshore, and Moonglade, so she had no idea what to expect from the goblin town. But, she figured she might be able to put at least one of her escape plans into effect. Well, one that might have a chance at succeeding, which isn't much.

Ileeya retrieved her band and put her hair back into a ponytail. She then tugged at the metal collar around her neck. It was starting to get uncomfortable. She had tried numerous times to get it off, but nothing worked. With a sigh, she stood up again, tired of sitting around, and starting to hate the small cabin. She moved around in a small circle, careful not to get too close to the elemental. She just did not want to find out what it would do to her should she move towards the door. She stopped her pacing and jumped up and down in place to get the blood flowing in her legs. Finally, she sat down cross legged on the floor and closed her eyes. She hadn't meditated once during her captivity. Perhaps it would help clear her mind. If nothing else, it would give her something to do.

Sometime later, the door opened and the mage returned, dismissing his water elemental as he entered. Ileeya ignored him until she heard him approach her. She looked up glaring at him, but he didn't seem to care. His hand reached down and lifted her chin so that she was facing him. He turned her head so as to see the cheek he had hit. "No bruise. Good."

Ileeya pulled her head back out of his grasp and scowled before standing up. "Why should you care?"

The sin'dorei's usual smirk was absent as he paused before replying nonchalantly, "No bruise means possibly more gold at the auction." He glanced at the abandoned piece of bread. "You better eat." He made himself busy with something inside his bag.

"I'm not hungry." Ileeya jutted her chin in defiance, a stubborn streak starting to emerge.

Kirlothenin gave an inaudible sigh before slowly turning around and eyeing her. He leaned back against the door frame and crossed his arms in front of his chest. "Yes you are. You didn't eat dinner last night."

Ileeya stood her ground and crossed her arms in front of her as well. "So?"

"So..." He gave her a strange sort of look. "...this isn't about food. It's about last night."

Ileeya paused as her gaze narrowed. Was he actually talking _to _her...instead of _at _her? She feigned indifference and shrugged. "It doesn't matter."

"Obviously, it does."

Ileeya didn't want to talk to him anymore and turned her back on him. She heard him say something in Thalassian and caught the sound of swiftly moving feet. The night elf jumped around, putting up her arms to defend herself, should he hit her again. He reached out and pulled the arms down, holding them to her side and leaning in, determination in his eyes. "You deserved that hit for slapping me!" he growled out.

Her eyes went wide in disbelief. "_I_ deserved..?" She tried to squirm away, but he wasn't letting her go. "_You're_ the one who kept mocking _me_!" Her temper was starting to flail out of control. She knew, though, that she was treading on a dangerous line.

"You clearly don't realize your situation, Child!" His rumbling voice stopped her squirming as she looked at him uncertainly. "Not everyone is as..." he gave a grim smile as he chose his words carefully. "...lenient... as I am."

Ileeya remained still as she considered his words. If he was lenient, she didn't want to know what was to become of her after tonight. His grip on her arms loosened as he stood back up and returned to the doorframe, sure he'd gotten through to her. He had, to a point. Ileeya hadn't considered the type of character she could be sold to. Now her mind switched from escape to possibly making a deal. She blinked and wondered why she hadn't thought of it before. "What if...what if you don't sell me? What if you let me go?"

He scoffed. "I let you go; I don't get my gold."

Her mind raced. "But, what about if you can get your gold by letting me go." She shook her head slightly, trying to speak her thought more clearly. "I mean like a, uh, ransom! I work in an herb shop. My adopted father will gladly pay you some gold for my safe return!" This sounded like the perfect solution to her!

"No."

Her jaw dropped. "But-!"

"I have a contract. If I don't bring back a female night elf, I'll have broken my contract. My reputation _depends _on keeping my contracts." He returned to checking the contents of his bag.

Ileeya's hopes were faltering. "Can't you..." Her voice died out. She was about to ask if he could take the ransom and then kidnap some other elf, but she didn't want to ask that. She couldn't bear having some unsuspecting innocent take her place. With her arms folded over her chest, she took a deep breath and whispered, "What else should I know?"

**...**

The sun was starting to set as the passengers disembarked the ship. Ileeya looked around the U-shaped docks of Booty Bay, seeing numerous people of all races occupying their time on the docks. Some were talking, some fishing, other's looking to make some deals, she assumed. And guards were stationed at strategic spots. Seagulls swooped down occasionally, looking for some fish to steal.

Ileeya did not have her wrists tied with ropes. The blood elf made her promise not to run away if he kept the ropes off. Still, he didn't trust her, as he kept a firm grip on her left arm. As they walked down the dock towards some buildings, one of the fishermen, carrying a bucket of bait bumped into her. "Sorry, Miss." Ileeya felt something press into her right hand and she turned her head back as they passed the fisherman to see that it was a night elf, his fishing hat low, hiding his face. Kirlothenin gave the fisherman a wary glance, but as the night elf had gone back to fishing, he returned to his task at hand. She kept her hand closed, curious about what it was, but unwilling to open her hand to see. The sin'dorei would take it away from her.

After making sure they weren't followed, Kirlothenin lead Ileeya down to a lower dock and to the back of one of the more dilapidated buildings. There were no guards here, whether that was by design or luck, she wasn't sure. Citizens and guests of Booty Bay didn't seem to wander down here, either. Those that did loiter nearby seemed to be of a more, shady, disposition.

As they rounded a final corner, she saw a goblin sitting on top of some dirty crates next to a lantern. He wore some black trousers and a grey shirt with a black suede vest over it. In one hand, he fiddled with what looked like a walking stick. "Ahh, Kirlothenin Dawnwhisper." The goblin spoke in common. "I see you upheld your end of the deal." He slid off the crate and walked up to Ileeya, walking around her and looking her up and down. Ileeya felt uneasy. She didn't like his gaze. "Splendid! Splendid! She'll do very well! We're going to make a lot of gold, you and I. Now, let's see here. The split was 60/40 for me, right?"

"Fifty, Blackwrench, or I send her right back where I found her." Kirlothenin corrected. Ileeya didn't care how much the mage made, but she did glance at him. Kirlothenin? She never thought to ask him his name.

"Fifty it is, then." Blackwrench frowned slightly. "Although I did bribe the guards to stay away; arranged for the auction; hired security, gathered the bidders, and-"

"-And _I_ took the risk in getting her and bringing her here!" The blood elf growled in warning. "It's Fifty. No more, no less!"

Blackwrench said no more, only nodding his head once. "Our guests will arrive shortly." The goblin ushered Ileeya underneath the canopied section of the building and back beside the crates he had previously been sitting on. He frowned when he noticed her wrists. "Shouldn't she be tied up or something?" He glanced sidelong at Kirlothenin.

The blood elf smirked, looking directly at Ileeya. "She already knows she can't escape me." Ileeya merely gave him a cold look, but said nothing. Her eyes roamed around the area as she tried to determine the best escape option once the frost mage was out of the picture. Her hand still wrapped around the object loosely. She was still unable to look at it to see what it was. Though it felt somewhat flat, round, and smooth.

Kirlothenin's gaze lingered on the kaldorei for a moment, watching her eyes flicker from one spot to the next. She was most likely trying to determine her escape options. He was sure she wouldn't try anything, though, until he was no longer around. That didn't concern him, however. He turned as he stood with the goblin, to see the first of the bidders arrive. A tall, lanky jungle troll with the tip of one tusk broken off. He had feathers and fetishes decorating much of his attire. From what the blood elf could tell, he was probably a witch doctor. The troll walked over to the night elf and started to examine her, poking at her ribs. The mage knew that the Darkspear tribe were no longer cannibals. Was this a Darkspear, though? He hadn't spent enough time with them to make a definite determination.

Right after the troll arrived, the second bidder showed up. This one was a forsaken. Kirlothenin couldn't quite determine the undead's occupation, as he was in civilian clothes... such as they were. The forsaken merely glanced at the night elf and then found a seat, waiting for the bidding to start. The sin'dorei gave the slightest of frowns as he glanced towards the young druid. Her silver eyes were locked on the forsaken, as she shuddered. She obviously didn't like the idea of being amongst the undead. Kirlothenin had to wonder what the undead wanted with her, considering he barely even looked at her.

The next bidder arrived. This one was a human with light brown hair and brown eyes. From the looks of him, a rogue. He wore a dark brown leather tunic and legguards. He walked under the canopy and gave the night elf the once over, pausing to stare at her face for a good long minute. The kaldorei furtively looked back at him, giving him a slightly defiant but cautious look. Kirlothenin could easily imagine what the rogue wanted with her.

Blackwrench rocked on his feet, glancing up at his partner in this venture. "Just one more to arrive and we can start." He looked at Ileeya again as he said, "If this goes as well as I think it will, perhaps we can do it again." The goblin's greed was written all over his face.

"No." Kirlothenin ignored the goblin's surprised look. "This is my first and last venture into business of this kind. I can easily make sufficient gold otherwise."

"But not as much, as quickly." Blackwrench studied him keenly. "Have a change of heart for this business? When you first agreed to my plan, I thought you the type to not be...concerned...with such things."

The blood elf gave a half-shrug. "Not a change of heart. A change of mind. I found the return trip to be rather boring." The goblin raised an eyebrow, but dropped the subject as the final bidder arrived. Another human. This one wore a heavy cloak, covering him from head to toe. Once he was under the canopy, he removed the hood of the cape. The familiar ensemble of a Bloodsail Buccaneer was revealed as his cloak opened briefly.

Kirlothenin raised one long eyebrow at the pirate's audacity at coming into Booty Bay, seeing as the two factions were at war. The goblin gave the buccaneer a minute to look over the female before announcing, "Let the bidding begin."

**...**

The first to drop out of the bidding was the pirate. When the bid got too high for him, he simply shook his head, then left. The bidding continued until the rogue crossed his arms in front of his chest with a low whistle. "Too high for me, I'm afraid." He didn't leave, however. Instead, he leaned back against the wall near Ileeya, watching the other two bidders with interest. He must be curious to see who won.

Ileeya watched the bidding war go on with growing dread. Either human, she felt she could tolerate. But she feared the troll and the forsaken. Trolls were cannibals, though she reasoned with herself that the troll couldn't possibly be paying such a high price merely for a meal. Could he? Most of all, she didn't want to belong to the forsaken. Rumors abounded about horrible things they would do to others...experiments and such. When the rogue leaned against the wall, she shifted away from him, even though he was ignoring her as he watched the bidding with interest.

There was a pause by the troll after the last bid by the forsaken. Ileeya held her breath and glanced towards the blood elf. Even he would be better to belong to than the forsaken or troll! On second thought, she'd have a better chance at escape, hopefully, with one of the bidders. The troll bid one more time. Nonplussed, the walking corpse's gravelly voice spoke once more, upping the bid. He hadn't even looked in her direction after the simple glance when he first arrived. The troll paused again, then finally shook his head. Ileeya's violet face went white. The forsaken had won.

As Kirlothenin and Blackwrench went forward to accept payment from the undead, Ileeya's panicking eyes darted once more to look for an escape.

"Take the potion, now!" A voice whispered in her ear. She turned her head in surprise and confusion towards where the voice had come from. She didn't see anyone. She felt a tap on her own hand that contained the object. Glancing quickly at the three exchanging gold, she saw none of them were paying any attention to her for the moment and she opened her hand, finally seeing that it was a small vial with a purplish liquid inside. "Hurry!" The bodiless voice urged. Unplugging the vial, still not knowing what it was, she quickly gulped.

Ileeya's hand and arm disappeared before her eyes and through sheer will held back a gasp as she realized the rest of her body had disappeared as well, including her clothes. An invisibility potion! The hand that had tapped hers a moment ago now grabbed it and pulled her up on the crates, urging her to climb up quickly. She didn't resist and tried to be as quiet as possible. From the top crate, she could reach the lower part of the upper dock. Hands held each side of her ribcage, lifting her to grab the dock edge and she complied by pulling herself onto the upper deck. The hand disappeared, she assumed because of the rescuer pulling himself up as well. A moment later she felt his hand once more guiding her deftly around some of the crowd remaining on the decks and up to yet a third level of the docks. Here, there was access to some rooftops and she found herself on top of one as the invisibility potion wore off. Extremely nervous now, she frantically looked to see if they were missed yet.

Kirlothenin finished counting his coins and put the pouch in a pocket hidden within his robes. "It was a pleasure doing business. But as I've tired of this whole affair, I will be going now." His eyes darted to the crates. "You seem to be missing something, Forsaken." The forsaken, troll, and goblin all looked in the direction the blood elf was looking and saw that the night elf was missing!

"You let her go! Return my gold! I don't have the goods, I won't pay!" The forsaken demanded.

The goblin spoke up first. "No. The deal is done. Once payment was made, it was your responsibility to keep her secured. That's the rules." The goblins had a code when it came to dealing with money and they were sticklers for the rules.

The forsaken scowled for a moment, then gave a dead smile as he thought of a fast solution. "The first to bring her back to me gets a reward." He named his reward. The goblin, blood elf, and troll all smiled and immediately left the area.


	6. Chapter 6

The rooftop provided a great view of the whole bay, and the night sky seemed to have brought on a blanket of quiet. Once bustling vendors and workers, turned into people out for a stroll using quiet voices in their conversations. The air had become a bit more chilled than before, and the ever-present wind didn't help. Ileeya shivered. The cold wasn't the only thing to watch out for right now.

Her rescuer suddenly became visible beside her, and she was surprised to see the the human rogue who had tried to buy her just a few minutes ago. Ileeya was immediately wary. Was he rescuing her? Or was he taking her from the forsaken because he didn't win the bid? He looked over at her and gave her a wink. "You're not safe, yet. Use those peepers of yours and see if anyone is looking for us."

Ileeya spoke common well enough, but she had no clue what 'peepers' were. Slang was not something she had picked up on in her studies. At her confused look, the rogue pointed to her silver eyes. "Peepers! Use 'em!" She blinked as she understood. Night elves had little trouble seeing through the darkness. Booty Bay wasn't totally dark, though. There were torches and lamps everywhere. She searched the docks starting with the ramps that went to the lower docks. Sure enough, the jungle troll came out searching the docks for the escaped elf. He sniffed the air and pulled out one of his fetishes, shaking it.

The night elf moved back just a little to make sure he wouldn't see her. She glanced to her right to see a ramp lead into a cave of some sort. The goblin, Blackwrench, was there with some of his security guards. Seeing the direction she was looking, the human said, "That's the main entrance in and out of Booty Bay. It's the only way to get here from land." He squinted. "Is that Blackwrench?" She gave a curt nod. "He's got it blocked. We can't escape that way."

Oddly enough, the rogue smiled. "But that's not how I had planned on escaping anyhow." Now Ileeya turned her full gaze on him, unsure of what he meant. The rogue only motioned for her to follow him. "Is the coast clear this way?" She scanned the two roof tops before her as well as the surrounding areas and nodded. He then moved forward back onto the first rooftop they had climbed and then down to another nearby roof. They were next to the mountain side that backed all of Booty Bay now. Two waterfalls fell into what looked like a pool of water below. The rogue stepped cautiously off the roof to slide down the mountain side and into the water. Ileeya tried to follow exactly what he had done and found herself gasping as she splashed into the cold water. Waist high where they stood, she saw that it was not just a pool of water, but a part of the bay itself.

Again, the rogue motioned for her to follow which she did. The floor of the bay quickly disappeared and she found herself swimming underneath the docks. They followed the main docks in the dark. There were no torches or lanterns down here with good reason. They just didn't expect people to be moving around under the docks, especially at night. The rogue obviously knew this place inside and out. They kept going until the mountain started to turn away from the docks. The human stopped and looked at her. "How far can you swim underwater?"

Ileeya considered herself a decent swimmer and said, "Pretty far, I suppose." The coldness of the water was starting to seep into her skin.

"Good. Because I don't have any potions to let you breathe underwater. Now here's the plan." He pointed to the water where it met the mountain. "We're going to swim underwater as far as we can. The reflections of the moon and lights from the town will mask our forms under the water and we shouldn't be spotted. We come up for water when we need to and only surface when we need to in order to limit the chance of being seen. Keep going until I signal to stop. Got it?" Ileeya nodded again, finding that she was beginning to trust him. There seemed to be a plan in place for her rescue. But who made the plan? And how did they know she would need rescuing?

The two swam under the water, coming to the surface for air a number of times. Once they were out of sight of the docks, he signaled for her to stop. As they tread water, he spoke. "We've made it around the bend now. They can't see us anymore." At the look of relief on Ileeya's face, he shook his head. "We're not out of danger yet, kid. Up yonder is a small beach. It's occupied by bloodsail pirates." He paused to let that sink in as he reached for something in a chest pocket. Handing it to her, he said, "Take it when I tell you, not before. We'll have to get past the pirates and up a small canyon. The potion should hopefully last until we get past them. If not, well, that's when things will get a little tricky." She looked at what he handed her and saw it was another invisibility potion. "Don't mess up! That's my last one."

The two swam a little more before reaching the beach. Just before coming ashore he indicated for her to take the potion and he ghosted himself. Because she couldn't see him, he took her hand and guided them out of the water and onto the beach. They stuck close to the mountain side and had to freeze in place once as a bloodsail raider came near them. They may be invisible, but footsteps could still be heard. Well, hers could. She had no idea how he was able to move without making a sound. Luckily, the raider turned around and moved on in his patrol.

They were making great time and passing a female bloodsail wearing a robe when she suddenly stopped, sensing a little bit of magic somewhere nearby. This being the most inopportune time, of course, the potion decided to wear off. The bloodsail mage looked right at them! The rogue muttered a curse and threw a knife at her to stop her from calling out for reinforcements. The knife grazed her shoulder. She was injured, but not out of it. A flame suddenly appeared in her hands and formed into a fireball. She shot it towards the duo and the rogue pulled Ileeya down. She could feel the heat of it as it passed over her head. "Stay down!" He jumped up and vanished before her eyes. Ileeya wanted to help in some way, but had no idea how. She was beginning to get very frustrated with how helpless she was in her own safety. The mage glanced at her, then looked around. She knew the rogue was stealthed around here somewhere and was more dangerous than the wet elf on the ground. She cast a fast spell that formed a circle of arcane energy around her and then blasted it out in all directions.

A grunt was heard as the rogue appeared, stumbling backwards from the blast. The mage smiled and started to form the fire spell to finish him off when she was interrupted by an arrow embedding itself into her hand. Her scream of pain was cut short as a large white saber cat pounced on her, clawing and biting until the mage no longer moved. Ileeya quickly stood up and ran over to the rogue to make sure he was okay, then stopped short. The night elf spun around to look at the cat again. Finished with it's prey, the feline looked up at her and started to purr. "Sabine!"

Ileeya looked up in the direction the arrow had come from and quickly spotted in the dark the form of a night elf holding a bow. She forgot about the rogue and ran as fast as she could up the hill. The figure moved just as quickly towards her and the two fell into a great big bear hug. "Jelune." Tears of joy glistened her eyes and it was the first time she had smiled in days.

"I'm alright." The rogue approached, dusting off his pants. "Really. Don't worry about me. I'm just the one who risked his life against the big baddies to get you out of there and what do I get for it? Left in the dust on my back for the guy who shot one- Count it- ONE arrow and sicked his kitten on the mage about to incinerate my a- Oof!" He was cut short as Ileeya gave him a big hug as well.

A slight tinge of color came to the rogue's cheeks as he accepted her hug and cleared his throat. "Ahem, well, as much as I love the company of a lovely young woman, we're not out of danger yet." His smile faded and a more serious expression crossed his features. "Those guys are going to realize that we aren't in the bay anymore and will come searching for us out here." He indicated in the distance what could just be seen as a huge pair of skeletal shark jaws that marked the entrance to Booty Bay. "We would be spotted quickly from here. Follow me. I know a place to hide so you can rest up."

As they walked, Ileeya asked, "How did you find me?"

The hunter gave a light laugh. "That, Ilee," he said, using her nickname, "is a bit of an adventure in itself."

**...**

_Days Earlier..._

"I have an idea. You won't like it, but there's a chance."

Jelune glanced at his father with a serious look. "Tell me."

"I had an offer of help from a customer who saw you pacing before." Firodren didn't really care to go with this idea, but he would do anything to help his foster daughter. Jelune looked impatient and Firodren sighed, deciding to just let it out. "It was Mehlumis."

Jelune gave his father a cautious look. He knew his father had prejudices against mages, especially the highborne. He, himself even held some. The highborne were not well liked because of their part in the War of the Ancients. They had even been banished. Most went across the ocean to the Eastern Kingdoms and became the high elves. But one sect stayed on Kalimdor, traveling south instead. Over the millenia, they were able to overcome their own addiction to arcane magic while still being able to use it. As the war in Northrend ended, they came out of their place in Eldre'Thalas and asked to return to their home lands.

He didn't know what took place in those conversations between the highborne and the high priestess, but Tyrande Whisperwind eventually agreed, making an announcement to her people to accept the highborne's return. In her speech, she had said something about them having tremendous discipline to keep from being addicted to the magic, and that it was time for the two to reunite. This was especially so because of the recent events causing them to lose their immortality. Her people loved their leader and so allowed the highborne to once again live among them. But acceptance was a fickle thing. While the mages walked among them, most of the kaldorei were merely cordial. The older generation, especially, were more stand-offish. The youngest generation were a bit more accepting. Some curious ones even took steps to start learning some of their ways, though often cautiously.

His father continued. "As you know Mehlumis is a mage." He glanced around and gathered some of his best herbs. "Take these to him. Offer them as payment."

Jelune took the herbs, confused. "Payment? For what?"

"A portal to Booty Bay."

Nothing more needed to be said. Prejudices didn't matter. Jelune gave his father a smile and quickly ran from the shop, across Tradesmen's Terrace, across the Warrior's Terrace, and into the Craftsmen's Terrace. There, he stopped to catch his breath and glance around. He had no idea where the scribe's small shop was, having no real reason to go there in the first place. He entered the leatherworking shop he usually went to for his own outfits and asked the clerk there about where to find the scribe. The clerk mentioned a few shops, but wasn't sure which one the mage was in. So, Jelune continued his search, entering into the first scribe shop on the list. Nope. Not there. After a couple more tries, he found Mehlumis at a desk, writing something on some parchment.

The mage looked up and upon seeing who had come into his shop, stood. "What can I help you with, Jelune?"

The hunter shoved the herbs in his direction. "I need a portal to Booty Bay! Here's payment."

Mehlumis did not take the herbs and frowned. Was h not going to help him? Maybe he needs a reason. "My foster sister, Ileeya. She's been taken by the horde. There's a chance I can rescue her, but I have to get to Booty Bay quickly!" He shoved the herbs at Mehlumis again.

The mage glanced at the herbs and sighed. "I would like to help you, but I have not been to this place before. A mage must have been to a place before he can teleport there." Jelune's hopes plunged. "However, perhaps I can still help." Mehlumis looked off to the side as he spoke his thoughts. "I have been other places and one place in particular will not only get you closer to your goal, but I have an acquaintance there as well who may be able to get you to Booty Bay."

"Who, and where is the place? How far away from Booty Bay is it?"

"Her name is Ysuria. She's a high elf. As for where, it's called Theramore Isle."

"If it'll get me one step closer, I'll go!" Jelune said, determination on his face as he once more offered the rare herbs to Mehlumis.

The mage pushed them back again, then stopped and picked one out. "I'm going to need that later. I'll visit your father later with proper payment." He then stepped back muttering the words of the spell and the portal appeared. "Remember, find Ysuria and see if she can help. This portal will take you to the bottom of the mage tower in Theramore. That's where Ysuria usually works." Jelune nodded as he put the herbs in his hip pouch and stepped through.

When he emerged from the portal, Jelune took a moment to orient himself and look around. He didn't see a high elf. In fact, he didn't see anyone. He moved towards a doorway that lead outside and glanced around. It was raining. He saw some guards and a few others quickly moving from place to place, but no high elf. Jelune stepped back inside trying to figure out what to do now.

"Can I help you?"

Jelune whirled around to see a human woman coming down some stairs and eyeing him warily. "I hope so. I'm looking for a high elf named, Ysuria. A friend said she'd be here."

"She's gone on a day trip. I don't expect her back until tomorrow." At the look of frustration on the night elf's face, the woman came forward. "Perhaps I can help you with something?"

"I...don't know. A mage! I need a mage. Do you know where I can find one?"

The blonde woman gave a quirky smile. "Yes. Why?"

"My sister is in danger and I need a portal to Booty Bay as soon as possible so I can help her."

The smile faded. "I'm a mage."

Jelune pulled out the herbs, which were starting to get a bit crushed now. "I can pay you with this or some gold for a portal. Please."

"Keep them. The only thing I ask for as payment is that you let me know afterwards that she's okay."

He put the herbs back. "I will, I promise," he said as she made the portal. Before he stepped through, he paused. "Thank you, uh..." He didn't know her name.

"Jaina."

**...**

_Present..._

"Now we get to the best part!" The human stuck his thumb towards his chest. "Me!" He had been leading them through the jungle to a destination he had in mind. "But first..." He stopped midway to the top of a small mountain. The area was surrounded by trees on three sides, and the mountain covered in overgrowth on the fourth side. "Watch." The rogue moved the vines and overgrowth aside to reveal a small cave behind it. The three entered the dark cave, and the vines moved back to hide the cave from the outside. Ileeya shivered from the cool night air on her still wet clothes. The cave provided protection from the breeze, but she was most grateful when the rogue started a fire to warm them up.

Jelune continued with his story. "Once I arrived in Booty Bay, I immediately checked to see when the ship from Ratchet was due. There were two expected within the next few days. I then roamed around the docks, just in case you were there already. Well, to make a long story short, I ended up in the Salty Sailor Inn where I met Adam."

"That's me."

"I hired him to help me and we came up with the plan for him to infiltrate the..." Here Jelune's eyes darkened, distaste in his voice. "...auction."

"Yeah. And you're lucky I was able to get in at all." Adam included. "It took a bit of time, but I finally was able to sway Blackwrench into letting me in on the secret location of the auction and when to expect it."

"From there, it was simple. I bought some fisherman's clothes and Adam procured the invisibility potions, giving one to me. I simply had to wait. If you came by ship, I would hand a potion to you for when you would need it. If you arrived otherwise, Adam would have a potion to give you."

"That was you?" Ileeya asked in surprise. "Why didn't you try to rescue me then?"

Adam answered for Jelune. "Not a good idea out in the open. The Booty Bay bruisers will attack the first one to cause trouble. They would net him and put him away before asking any questions. By the time he could explain, you and the mage would have disappeared. Having me on the inside was the best option."

Ileeya was starting to feel warmer, but it would take awhile for her clothes to dry. She removed the band from her hair and shook it near the fire so it would dry faster.

"And, now that you two are safe, I've fulfilled my end of the deal." Adam looked at Jelune who went to his backpack and pulled out a pouch of gold coins. Having extra time on his hands in Booty Bay, Jelune was able to sell the herbs he had for a nice amount. He counted out Adam's fee and gave it to him, plus a bit extra as a tip. Adam grinned. "Time for me to skedaddle. There's a certain 'Sea Wolf' I owe and it's not a good idea to make him wait."

He stood and shook Jelune's hand. "Nice doing business with you." He then turned to Ileeya and offered her his hand. "Nice meeting you, Ileeya. Stay safe."

Ileeya took his hand and shook it. "Ande'thoras-ethil, Adam."

The rogue left the cave and disappeared out of sight. Jelune glanced at his sister and then headed for his pack once more. "I got something for you." Ileeya moved over to him as he pulled out some clothing. "Dry, clean clothes."

"Perfect!" She took them and looked them over to see if they will fit as Jelune headed towards the cave entrance.

"Let me know when you're done changing and I'll come back in."

Ileeya removed her wet clothing, and climbed into the dry outfit. She ran a finger between her neck and the collar wishing she could take it off. "Okay Jelune. I'm ready." She spread out the wet clothing on the floor near the fire so it can dry. Looking towards the entrance, she wondered if he heard her since he wasn't coming in. Probably the vines muffled her voice. She moved to the entrance and opened it so he could hear her. "Jelune?"

Ileeya gasped as she saw Jelune unconscious on the ground. "Jelune!" She knelt down next to him. "What happened?" Blood trickled from a cut on his temple and a dart was sticking out of his neck.

"I happened, mon." The witch doctor troll came out of the shadows, a soft cackle emitting from his throat. "I been lookin' for ya. There be a price on your head."


	7. Chapter 7

Ileeya shifted away from the troll. She faced him but would not leave Jelune. The light of the full moon made it easy to see all the different feathers, fetishes, and other decorations that he wore. Ileeya stole a quick glance to the entrance of the cave. They had left Sabine sleeping at the back of the cave. "What did you do to him?"

"Oh he be merely asleep, girly. Too bad da boy hit his head on da way down." The witch doctor took a step forward. Ileeya glanced around and spotted a stick about as long as her arm. She grabbed it and pointed it at the troll intent on defending herself. "Dat be your weapon o' choice?" The troll let out a loud laugh. "Don' be daft, girly." He cackled again clearly not afraid of her, or her stick. "'Tis no wonder dat you were dumb enough ta escape inta da jungle. _My_ jungle. I know it betta dan anybody. Tracking you was easy."

He pulled out a small container without taking his eyes off of her. "Dat boy's head don' look too good." He slowly opened the container, taking his eyes off her just long enough to pour a dark liquid into the cap. "I have da means to heal him." Ileeya's skin began to crawl as he cackled again. She didn't trust him at all and doubted he'd heal Jelune. "I will heal him, if..." he stretched out his arm with the cap, "...you drink dis."

She eyed the cap but made no moves to take it. "What is it?" She considered the thought of making a break for the cave to wake Sabine, but realized that would only trap herself. At least out here, there was the possibility of escape. That is, provided Jelune woke up.

"Jus' a little somethin' ta make ya a bit more...agreeable." Ileeya shook her head adamantly. As if he expected her to say no, with one hand, he pulled a small dart with small feathers sticking out and put it in a blow pipe that hung around his neck on a string. "Oh, dat wound on da boy's head. It don' look good, mon," he said pretending concern. "I tink I'd betta put 'im outta his misery." The troll's voice grew darker with each word as he lifted the pipe to his mouth and aimed towards Jelune's helpless body.

"Wait." Ileeya was struggling with herself. She didn't want to drink that liquid, but if she didn't, he was going to kill Jelune! There was no guarantee the troll wouldn't kill him after she drink it, but dare she take the chance? Alternatives flew through her mind. She could try to block the dart with the stick. Extremely unlikely. She could throw the stick at the troll. She doubted it would do much harm, and she would be bereft of a weapon afterwards. She could attack him with the stick, but that would put her in physical reach of him and he was definitely the stronger and more experienced fighter of the two.

"Time be up, girly. Make up yer mind."

Ileeya reached out to take the cap, her hands trembling, tears unwillingly flowing. "Promise me you won't kill him?"

"I promise, _I_ won't kill him." There was a glint in the troll's eyes that she didn't like.

Ileeya whispered a prayer to Elune and put the cap to her lips.

Before she could pour the liquid into her mouth, the liquid and the whole cap suddenly froze solid! Ileeya immediately pulled the cold cap away from her face in surprise as something hit the witch doctor, knocking him back. The troll yelled in anger and looked to see where the attack had come from. A figure from above on a flying carpet shot some sort of magical bolt at the troll who dodged it this time. With the moon shining behind the person, Ileeya couldn't see any facial features on the attacker. The troll blew his dart towards the figure which missed. He then pulled out some sort of rattle, shaking it and chanting. Ileeya dropped the frozen cap and ducked down beside her brother in order to stay out of the crossfire. The figure grunted and almost fell from his carpet, but managed to catch himself.

Ileeya watched the two fight until she heard a moan from Jelune. He was slowly waking up. Cradling his head in her lap, she took the small dart out of his neck. Next she gave a closer look at the cut on his temple. It was bleeding still, but not profusely. He would recover if he got some healing soon. A scream caught her attention. She looked up just in time to see the witch doctor falling off the side of the mountain and tumbling down into the trees below. There was a roar from a shadow panther and the troll's screams were silenced.

The figure descended slowly, and as he did so, she could finally see who it was that defeated the troll. Kirlothenin. Ileeya was speechless, her jaw hanging open as she recognized that self-confident but tired smirk on his face. "Nasty things, those potions from witch doctors. Just a few drops of zuvembi brew and your will will no longer be your own. He could have made you do whatever he wanted." He faked a big sigh. "Oh the things I go through to make a little extra gold."

Ileeya glanced briefly towards the thawing cap of liquid. So that's why he wanted her to drink it. Kirlothenin stepped off the carpet and it fell lifeless to the ground. He glanced at the stirring body of Jelune. "Well, if isn't the missing hunter. Resourceful. Intriguing."

Ileeya didn't want to think about what would have happened if she had drunk that potion. Instead, she refocused her thoughts towards Jelune. He needed healing, and the only thing standing between that and getting it, was the collar around her neck. And Kirlothenin had the key. With a determined strength, she stood up and walked closer to the blood elf, her heart beating hard at what she was about to do. Surprisingly, he didn't try to grab her when she got within arms reach. "Take this collar off." There was a determined desperation in her eyes. "Please."

He raised a long eyebrow. "Now why should I do that?"

Ileeya failed to contain a shudder. "Because I promise not to run away. My brother needs healing, now. And I can give it to him." She didn't want to beg, but she would if need be.

Kirlothenin looked at her for what seemed to be a long time before reaching into a pocket on the inside of his robe and pulling out a key. As he unlocked the collar. She went to Jelune and muttered her spell to heal him. The bleeding stopped and the cut sealed. Ileeya brushed his hair out of his face. "Jelune?"

There was a moment of silent waiting before his eyes fluttered open. "Ileeya?" A look of confusion crossed his features. "What happened?"

"A witch doctor shot you with a dart, making you fall asleep. You hit your head, but you'll be okay. I healed you." She gave him a soft smile.

With relief, Ileeya moved back as her brother slowly sat up. His hand went to his temple. "What a headache!"

"I'd hate to break up this little family reunion, but _Ileeya_..." Kirlothenin nodded towards her, using her name for the first time. "...and I have an appointment. The forsaken has offered a substantial reward for your return, kaldorei."

"But-!" Ileeya couldn't understand the blood elf. First he captures her and sells her off, then he rescues them from the witch doctor, and now he wants to return her to the forsaken? "Why-?" She couldn't think to articulate her protest. Her eyes went to where the troll had fallen off the mountain side.

Kirlothenin's eyes went to where she was looking and shrugged. "I was getting rid of the competition."

"Leave her alone, sin'dorei. If you must take someone take me." Jelune's voice rumbled as he tried to stand. His head became dizzy and was forced to sit down again. He may have been healed, but only time will aid his recovery.

The blood elf merely scoffed. "How noble of you. But, he wouldn't want _you_."

Ileeya's eyes hadn't moved from the spot where the troll went over. "Kirlothenin." She looked at him now with a bit of shrewdness, an idea forming quickly in her mind. "Are you under contract for my return?" Jelune looked at his sister in confusion.

Kirlothenin paused at her use of his name, then he almost smiled in response to her question. "No, there was an open offer, no contract."

Ileeya moved past him and to the spot she had been looking. She knelt down and worked at something with her hands for a few minutes. The sin'dorei positioned himself so that he could keep an eye on both her and her brother as he quietly waited to see what she was up to. She stood up finally and turned around to show them an herb she had found. It was goldthorn, roots and all. "What if we pay you the reward, and you let us go?"

The blood elf merely looked at her, unimpressed. "That one herb is nowhere near worth the amount of the reward."

"I have some gold." Jelune spoke up quickly and reached into his hip pouch. Pulling out a small bag he tossed it to Kirlothenin. The mage caught the bag and glanced inside. "Still not enough."

Ileeya seemed ready for this as she closed her eyes and started to mutter a spell she had once thought would never help her. The goldthorn began to grow. More and more of the spikey stems appeared until she had her whole arms full of the plant. "Is this enough?"

The blood elf had watched the plant grow at first in mild surprise, then a look of greed grew as much as the herb did. "This..." he reached out to take the large amount of goldthorn and placed it on his carpet. "...will do." However, after setting the plant down, he shot out a hand and grabbed Ileeya's wrist, pulling her near. "But why let you go when I can just keep you and make you grow more herbs for me."

Ileeya gasped as she realized her plan had just backfired. Now what? How can she get around his greed? "I- I won't do it. I'll refuse!"

Kirlothenin ignored her protests. "You can grow those herbs and I'll make so much gold, I can retire from bounty hunting."

"But what fun is that?" Jelune was finally able to stand. He kept one hand against the mountain wall to steady himself. His interruption caused the blood elf to look at him shrewdly. Jelune continued. "If you retire and sit around a house all day, you'll get bored and long for the hunt again." Jelune was only guessing and hoping to come up with something so that he doesn't fly off with Ileeya again.

Standing there holding Ileeya's wrist, Kirlothenin thought over what the hunter had said and slowly, craftily, a smile crept onto his face. "The hunter...becoming the hunted." He let go of Ileeya's wrist, that self-confident smile in full bloom. "I like it. Challenge accepted, _hunter_." The blood elf stepped onto his carpet and muttered a spell. A portal opened up as Kirlothenin looked directly at Ileeya. "Portals are so finicky, you know. They disappear so quickly." With that, he muttered some more words and vanished- carpet, goldthorn, and all.

Silence.

Ileeya and Jelune looked at each other in disbelief. Did he really just let them go? Jelune glanced at the portal. "He didn't use his portal."

"Huh?"

"He didn't use his portal. He teleported away. Why didn't he just step through the portal?" He had been through enough portals lately to know how they were used.

Ileeya peered into the center of the portal and saw a forest, different from the Stranglethorn jungle they were in. The mage's last words to her still in her head, Ileeya ran into the cave to retrieve her clothes and Jelune's bag. She woke Sabine and said, "Jelune!" This is about all she could do to control the animal. At it's master's name, the cat went to him. Ileeya came out of the cave and put a shoulder under her brother's arm urging him towards the portal. "Hey! What do you think you're doing? We're not going through that-"

She shoved him into the portal, with her and Sabine following right after. "-thing."

Jelune looked around. There was something familiar about this forest. They were in a small clearing with a hill rising up behind them. "That was stupid, Ileeya! We don't even know where we are now!"

Ileeya was looking around, herself. "You said it yourself. Why make a portal if he wasn't going to use it? That, plus what he said right before he left, made me think he made it for us!"

Jelune gathered up his energy to climb the hill. "That's ridiculous! Why in the world would he want to _help _us?" He got to the top and looked around. "By Elune!" he whispered as he realized that the mage really DID help them! They were in Elwynn Forest! He could see the town of Goldshire in the distance.

The two night elves made their way to Goldshire and stopped at the Lion's Pride Inn to let Jelune regain his strength. Because they had no gold left, they had to ask Barkeep Dobbins to kindly give them some water. He took a look at how disheveled they were and poured the water into two cups. He then went on to give them a couple of apples from a fruit bowl...after checking that the innkeeper wasn't watching first.

The travelers sat at the table drinking their water and discussing what to do next. "We'll go to Stormwind. I'll visit the bank there to get some more gold. And I'll send a messenger to repay the barkeep here for his kindness." Jelune spoke between bites of the apple. "From there, we'll purchase passage on one of the ships from Stormwind to Teldrassil." Jelune had been to Stormwind and Elwynn Forest before. It was here he had tamed his grey wolf, Storm.

Ileeya didn't reply as she was mulling things over in her mind. "Jelune. I-" She wasn't sure how to say her thoughts convincingly so she pondered them some more and spoke slowly as she tried. "I don't think we are out of danger, yet."

Jelune stopped chewing on his apple and looked at his sister, waiting for her to continue. "Kirlothenin's last words; '_let the hunter be hunted_'. Jelune, I think he may be thinking of..." Here, her face grew worried. "...hunting you."

Jelune's first reaction was to scoff at his sister. What would the mage want with him? Then his eyes narrowed as he recalled the final conversation. '_Challenge accepted_, hunter.'

"As strange as it sounds, Ilee, you may be right."

"And he knows just where we are. Jelune, he could have teleported anywhere! What if he's already nearby?" Ileeya was starting to glance around as if he were in the inn watching them somewhere.

Her brother's hand reached out to her as his gaze held hers. "I don't think so. It wouldn't be a fair chase if he came after me right away. I think he'll wait a bit." He then tried to ease his sister's concern by shrugging his shoulders. "Besides, maybe it was just words and no meaning behind them. For all we know, he's forgotten all about us and off doing some other dastardly deed." He didn't fully believe it himself, however.

By this time, he had regained more strength and the two decided to take the half hour walk to Stormwind. Once there, they visited Cathedral Square where Jelune had his headache attended to and finish up the healing that Ileeya had started. Jelune put Sabine in the stables and rented a room from the inn in the Trade District.

Early the next morning, the two walked around the trade district. This was Ileeya's first time to Stormwind and she wanted to look around a bit. As they were walking by the canals, Jelune announced, "While I think we are safe from the sin'dorei in here, I think it would be best to leave as soon as possible."

Reluctantly, Ileeya agreed. "So, I guess we check the ship schedule to get the next one to Teldrassil?"

Jelune didn't answer at first as he was deep in thought. Then slowly shook his head. "The ship to Teldrassil is the obvious choice for us. He could sneak aboard and easily trap us in a ship."

Ileeya had first knowledge of that and quickly agreed with him. "But how else do we get home? We're on another continent entirely."

Jelune suddenly smiled. "By fulfilling a promise!" The two walked over a bridge and between a number of shops before finally ending up at the base of a tall tower. He lead her up a spiral ramp and then inside looking around. When he had been to Stormwind before, he had visited the Mage District, but not the tower. They stopped at the first person they saw. "We'd like to purchase a portal to Theramore Isle, please."

The grey-haired man regarded them coolly. "I am not in the _business_ of making portals to just any stranger who wanders in here." He turned away to look back at the book he had been reading.

Jelune was stopped short. He had been so sure the mages of Stormwind would make a portal for him. Most people did not casually travel by portal. Usually when one asks, there is a specific need for the rushed travel. Ileeya spoke up this time, hoping to elicit some sympathy for their plight. "Sir? I know you're very busy, but I've had a terrible time. You see, I was captured by a member of the horde and brought over to this continent against my will. My brother here, helped me escape, but we believe the blood elf to still be after us. We hope to throw him off by using a portal to go to a place he may not think we would be. We can't take a ship. Would you, please help us?"

The mage looked at her at first in disbelief, as though she were making up a sob story, then just stared at them blankly. After what seemed like an eternity, he sighed, then shut his book and put it down on a nearby table. "You're not going to leave me alone until I do this, are you?" Without waiting for an answer, he muttered the correct spell and the portal to Theramore opened. He accepted the thanks with an irritated nod as he waved his hand to hurry them through. When the portal closed he grabbed his book again and continued his reading.


	8. Chapter 8

Jelune and Ileeya emerged from the portal in the same spot Jelune had appeared before: inside the bottom of the mage tower. This time, however, Ysuria was there looking at them disinterestedly. Jelune stepped forward and introduced himself and Ileeya. "You must be Ysuria."

"I am. And how did you know this?" She asked, reservation in her voice.

"Mehlumis told me to look for you last time I was here."

There was silence as she seemed to recall the name. "Ah, yes, the scribe." Apparently not wanting to elaborate on how the two knew each other, she changed the subject. "What is your reason for visiting Theramore?"

"Last time I was here, I had made a promise to a mage who had helped me. I wanted to thank her and introduce her to my sister."

"We have a number of mages here in Theramore. Her name, if you please?"

"Oh. Sorry. It was Jaina. I didn't get a last name."

A slight smile played at the corners of her mouth. "I'll see if she is available." The high elf ascended the spiral staircase. Jelune and Ileeya entertained themselves by looking around the room and glancing out the door. It was raining again.

A few minutes later, Ysuria came back down. "She is in a meeting at present, but has asked me to show you to the inn where you can get some refreshments. You will be summoned when she is ready for you." She paused to put a cloak on before leading them out of the tower, down a hill, across a road and into the inn. She approached the innkeeper there. "These two night elves are guests of Lady Proudmoore. Please show them every courtesy."

Jelune had a confused look on his face for a moment. Proudmoore? That name was familiar to him. He suddenly closed his eyes in realization as he remembered the name. Ileeya must have come to the same realization as she started to bubble over in soft laughter. She tried to hide it, but it was impossible. Jelune glared at his sister then spoke to Ysuria. "I'm sorry. I was so... I didn't realize... I mean-" He realized he was babbling and took a deep breath before continuing. "Please tell Lady Proudmoore that we are grateful for her hospitality, but we wouldn't want to intrude on her time." Ileeya's silent laughter suddenly stopped as she gave her brother a look that told him she wanted to meet Theramore's ruler.

Ysuria's face held a bit of amusement. "Nonsense. Lady Proudmoore is expecting you now." She turned to leave, but stopped and glanced back at them. "Although, you might want to clean up a bit while you wait." As she disappeared, Ileeya and Jelune looked at each other. Both were disheveled with bits of twigs, leaves, grass, and dirt here and there, although Ileeya's clothes were neater than her brothers. The innkeeper showed them upstairs and a room with a tub in it for washing.

**...**

Jaina Proudmoore greeted her guests at the top of her tower. "Please join me for some tea?" She indicated an area with a table and chairs. There was a teapot with four cups already there. Ysuria came in and sat with them as Jelune and Ileeya related their tales. It was the first time Jelune heard just what had happened to his sister and his mood became darker as she told it. For this reason, when it came to the part where she had hit Kirlothenin, and consequently his return hit, she omitted them from her story. She didn't want her brother breaking anything in Lady Proudmoore's room.

"You're lucky your sister is a druid, Jelune." Jaina commented after hearing how Ileeya was able to heal her brother.

"Oh, I'm not a druid yet, technically." At their host's questioning gaze, Ileeya told her how, traditionally, night elves started their class lessons after their core lessons. She only knew a very little part of druidism that her father had taught her for safety reasons.

"Is that what you desire for your future, then?"

"I'd like to study herbalism. But I also find druidism is a part of me, just like my father."

Jaina nodded and moved on to another subject. "So what are you going to do now?"

Ileeya looked at Jelune. "Honestly, I just want to go home."

Jelune wanted to go home, too, but he wasn't sure if they should. "He'll know to look for us there."

Ysuria spoke up. "Don't let him determine your course of action. If you do, you'll let him control you from a distance." Jaina agreed and told them it would be wise to let some authorities in Darnassus know of their situation. It was decided then. Lady Proudmore offered to send them home with a portal, and they thanked her.

After they left, Ysuria lingered for a moment. "Curious."

Jaina looked at her. "What is?"

"This, Kirlothenin. He's a mage. Why didn't he just use a portal to get her to Booty Bay? It would have been more efficient."

Jaina nodded as she considered the thought. "Perhaps, he wasn't in a hurry to get there."

Ysuria raised an eyebrow, then gave Jaina a respectful nod before returning to her workplace downstairs.

Jaina turned to read some official papers, then stopped and thought something over. She got out a clean parchment and wrote a letter. When she was done, she rolled it up, and sealed it. Then muttering some words, she held the letter over a candle letting it catch fire. She placed the burning parchment on a silver tray and moved on to her other business at hand, sure that her letter has already arrived at its destination.

**...**

_The Next Day..._

Ileeya had trouble sleeping the night before. Every little noise woke her and she feared Kirlothenin had come for Jelune...or herself. It got to the point that Jelune had to send Sabine in to sleep beside her bed. It helped a little, and she was able to get a bit more sleep. This morning, however, she found herself yawning as she entered Firodren's herbalism shop. Her foster father had been relieved at her safe return yesterday and had listened to them retell their adventures to himself and a sentinel captain. The captain said she would report the concern to the high priestess, and they would most likely shift some of the sentinels patrols to more often pass by the shop and their home.

"Ileeya. You didn't need to come in today. Why don't you stay home and get some rest?" Firodren watched her approach as she shook her head.

"No. I'd rather have company, Firodren. Besides, there's more to do here." She smiled and made herself busy at a new crop of herbs, checking on their growth. Firodren could not argue and allowed her to continue. Jelune had left earlier to visit his hunting trainer in hopes of stepping up his training.

A short while later Ileeya and Firodren looked up as a large figure nearly filled the doorway. Both recognized him right away. Who _wouldn't_ recognize him? Firodren approached quickly with respect. "Broll Bearmantle. Is there something I can do for you?"

The arch druid's antlered head looked from Firodren to Ileeya and back again. "I may have found what I'm looking for already, friend, thank you." He walked over to Ileeya. "Ileeya Whitestar?"

It took a moment for her to overcome her shock that he knew who she was. She could only nod her head. "Will care to you take a walk with me?" How could she deny the arch druid? Again, Ileeya nodded, giving her foster father an _'I don't know'_ shrug as they walked out of the shop. They walked for a little ways towards the center of Darnassus before he spoke again. "I hear you've had a bit of an adventure." At Ileeya's third nod, Broll stopped and looked at her. "I'm not going to bite you, child." He gave her a smile. "You _do _know how to talk?"

Ileeya felt something inside her relax. "Yes, sir."

"Good! I'll get right to the point." They continued their walk. "A friend of mine wrote and asked me to assess if you might be ready to start your druid training before your core lessons were over. She gave a brief explanation of your recent adventures, but I'd like to hear about it from you."

Again, Ileeya was in shock, but she forced herself to regain her composure and gave a brief report on what had happened. By the time they were finished, they were standing in a grassy area near the Cenarion Enclave. Whether that was by design on his part or not, she wasn't sure. "So, you think this sin'dorei might still be after your brother?"

She nodded and whispered. "I'm not entirely sure he'll be leaving me alone, either."

Broll stood in silence for a few minutes rubbing his bearded chin. "Yes, there is certainly cause for you to start your training early." His golden eyes looked at her. "Now to see your aptitude. You said your father taught you some things already?"

Ileeya hesitated before answering. "He's not going to get in trouble if he did, is he?"

Broll gave a big bear laugh. "No, child. He won't. And I'll take that as a yes. Show me what you know."

Ileeya cast her spells of thorns, roots, and hibernate. Then approached a nearby flower plant and was able to make it grow just enough to show what she could do. Then she stopped, looking a bit confused. "I can heal, but...well, there's no one to heal here."

Broll Bearmantle pulled out a knife and without preamble made a small cut on his arm. At her look of shock and concern he said, "Oh, don't worry. I don't think you'll fail. And even if you do," he leaned towards her in a conspiratorial fashion and whispered, "I can heal myself."

His manner put her a bit more at ease. She cast her spell and healed the cut. Broll nodded his head. "Let us sit." They sat there in silence for a long time before he started to speak of what it meant to be a druid. His speech was long, but Ileeya drank it all in with interest. Even though she already knew some of it from her father. Broll ended by saying, "I think you're ready for your training. There's just one more thing to do." He explained how there were many different types of druids who follow different paths. He needed to determine which path her natural tendencies ran.

He asked some questions and then asked her to attempt a few things. Afterwards, he nodded. "As I suspected. Your training should run along the path of restoration. That of healing. You'll be trained in the basics of all paths, of course, but emphasis will be put on your restorative abilities." He stood then led her into the Cenarion Enclave to a druid trainer standing there. "Denatharion. I'd like you to take on a new student. This is Ileeya Whitestar."

**...**

_Two Months Later..._

Kirlothenin stepped out of Alchemist Pestlezugg's shop and into the heat of the Tanaris desert. The trip to Gadgetzan was well worth it as the vendor had only one of the transmutation recipe's left. He folded the scroll into his bag and headed to the southeastern part of town. As he passed the large cage in the center of Gadgetzan, one of the goblin's came up to him. "Wanna place your bet? Odds are three to one on the orc."

The blood elf's green eyes darted towards the cage and it's inhabitants. There was the orc hunter, an ogre mage, and a night elf rogue inside getting ready to beat each other to a pulp. Only blunt weapons were allowed. The last one standing would take home the winnings. Kir waved the goblin aside, having no desire to waste his money on gambling today. He moved on towards his destination but stopped and looked back at the cage. The night elf looked familiar to him.

He watched as the fight started and then realized it was Thorian Nightblade. The two had met a couple of years ago when a client hired both of them to handle a job together. The night elf handled his part of the job with ruthless efficiency. Kirlothenin never trusted him, however, and had constantly been on guard. He felt the rogue had been ready to double-cross him at any moment and had been glad when the job was over.

Dismissing the memory, Kirlothenin turned and headed into a small building "Hey Qizzik. Get me my box," he said as he entered the bank. The goblin stepped behind a counter and Kirlothenin couldn't see what he did, but only a few seconds later, his banking box was on the counter and open. All banking boxes are enchanted to hold more than they seem able to do so. It's probably a similar enchant to what many travelers have done to their bags so that they can hold more than it was possible to hold if it were unenchanted.

_One day_, Kir thought to himself, _I'm going to figure out how those goblins are able to keep track of everyone's things between all the banks on Azeroth_. He put the recipe and a few other things in the box. Then something caught his eye. With some hesitation, he reached for it and pulled it out. It was a simple silver bracelet with one diamond-shaped charm on it.

"Nice. Something for someone special?" Qizzik observed.

Kirlothenin's gaze darkened as he returned it to the box. "No. I was just trying to decide if I wanted to sell it in the auction house. I've decided to wait," he lied. He closed his box and pushed it back to the banker, knowing the banker wouldn't be able to open it. Only the owner of the box can open it. He left the bank, turning to his right and headed to the inn where he was planning to stay the night.

Once there, he lay down on one of the beds with one arm behind his head for a pillow. His mind was on the bracelet and the last time he had seen it. It was bought as a gift, but never to be given to the one it was intended for. He remembered exiting the jewelry shop in Dalaran thinking it was the perfect gift. That's when the news hit. His fists clenched at the memory as his anger and pain renewed. Adrenaline coursed through his body and he could no longer lay on the bed.

Kirlothenin was up in a flash and marching outside, needing to get rid of this anger and knowing right where to do it. He headed straight towards the cage and marched up to a goblin named Dr. Dealwell. "Put me in the next fight!" The goblin eyed him up and down, noting the fighting spirit in his eyes and nodded.

When the cage door opened for the contestants to enter, Kirlothenin was the first to go in. His opponents followed and he looked at them only long enough to note their strengths and weaknesses. He didn't care if he won or not. He only wanted to fight. The first opponent was a female worgen. From the looks of it, a warrior. The other opponent was an undead rogue. Dr. Dealwell announced the start of the fight and the rogue disappeared.

Knowing the rogue would probably be after him first, the mage judged the distance from where he last saw the undead and counted down the time it would take to reach him. Before he thought the rogue would reach him, he cast a blink spell, suddenly finding himself on the other side of the cage. He was closer to the warrior now who charged at him, knocking the mage to the ground. But Kirlothenin was quick. Casting a frost nova trap, he was able to escape the warrior before the worgan was able to land a blow.

When Kirlothenin looked back, he found that he had caught the rogue in his spell as well and the warrior and rogue had turned on each other as they could only reach each other until the trap broke. Kirlothenin took a moment to recoup his energy then summoned his water elemental and told it to attack the warrior. The mage then cast some frost bolts at the rogue, knocking him out of the frost trap, but slowing his movement due to the coldness stiffening his muscles. The rogue vanished. Kirlothenin didn't blink this time and instead waited a moment before casting a blast of arcane power around him. This took a tremendous amount of energy, but it did the trick. The rogue appeared again, this time on his back. The blood elf shot one frost bolt square on the rogue's chest and the undead was out of the fight.

Kirlothenin turned to see how the elemental was doing against the warrior and only saw the elemental stunned and the worgen leaping at the mage. There was no time to get out of the way and the blood elf fell flat on his back, the warrior pummeling him. He could taste blood as his opponent adjusted himself to more easily beat on Kirlothenin. The mage found himself barely able to concentrate, but summoned his last reserve of energy to cast a cone of cold air in front of him. The worgen was blown off him. Frozen and unable to catch himself as he fell, the warrior was out for the count. Kirlothenin couldn't stand up, but felt hands come and lift him off the cage floor. Somewhere, Dr. Dealwell was announcing the winner. The world fell dark.

**...**

The blood elf moaned as he felt something on his cheek. He opened his eyes and put a hand on his face. A cold, damp cloth was there as a goblin priest sat over him. She muttered her prayers as she healed his wounds. He waited until she was done, knowing this was part of the 'service' of being a fighter in the cage. When he was at last able to sit up, he found himself still bruised and aching, but that will go away in time. His cuts and anything that might have been broken was healed.

"Nice job, mage." Kirlothenin looked up to see another blood elf sitting at the table in the inn. He was drinking something from a cup. Kirlothenin guessed he must have won the fight, not that he really cared. He stood up and had to pause to let a light wave of dizziness pass.

"Thanks," he muttered as he found his bag, picked it up, and walked out.

"Hold up, friend." The blood elf followed him. Kirlothenin ignored him and headed to the Horde flight master. He just wanted to get out of there. "I got a proposition for you."

Kirlothenin stopped and sighed as he turned towards the speaker. "Look, I don't care what you have to sell. I'm not buying."

"Ah, but that's just it. _I'm_ the one buying. And you seem to be just the one who can get for me, what I want to buy."

Kirlothenin now studied the elf for a minute. "I'm listening." The speaker smiled and motioned for them to find a more secluded spot where they could talk in private.

**...**

"If it's true, then it could be dangerous getting in there. You'll have to find someone to help you. It means you'll have to share the payment, but really, it's not a one person job. Do you know anyone you can recruit...and keep it quiet?" They were on a hill against the mountain, overlooking Gadgetzan.

He didn't answer right away as he considered his options. There were others he could probably work with. But none that were truly trustworthy. They would either stab him in the back as soon as they found their prize, or would try get more than their fair share of the money. Kirlothenin then remembered someone who was rather resourceful and wouldn't double-cross him. He wouldn't want to help him, but that was easily maneuvered around. The blood elf smiled. "Yes. I think I know just who I can get to help." _So the hunt begins_.

"Then it's a deal?"

He held out his hand and shook the other elf's hand. "Deal."

"Good. Here's instructions on how to contact me once you have acquired it."

Kirlothenin took the parchment and walked back to town. Once he was out of sight, a human female came out of hiding from behind a nearby rock. Had the mage turned the offer down, she was there to kill him just for knowing about the supposed object he will search for. "Think he'll succeed?"

The blood elf spoke in common. "Perhaps. We'll see." The last few they had hired had failed. This one seemed to have potential, though.


	9. Chapter 9

He had spent the last few days observing. The use of illusion potions was greatly increasing the cost of this job, but he felt it worth the cost. Besides, if things go as planned, he may be able to easily recoup those costs. Kirlothenin watched his 'prey' from a distance. The hunter was standing near the Howling Oak, training a bear in various commands. At the approach of voices, Kirlothenin stepped out of the way. The illusion worked well from a distance. But if they got to about arm's length from him, there was a higher chance for them to discover that he was only wearing an illusion of a night elf male. That is, if they bothered to look directly at him. As with many cities, the citizens are often focused on their tasks at hand and rarely look at each other except when they need to talk to them. Still, there was always the chance someone would approach him. For this reason, he also wore a cloak with the hood over his head as a double precaution. His nights were spent on an abandoned, hard to access beach on Azuremyst Isle.

The first day was spent just in search of Jelune, and by extension, his sister. All he had to go on was that the father was an herbalist and had a shop. Just where that shop was, he didn't know. His first search took him to the Tradesman's Terrace, but no luck there. Next, he wandered carefully into the Craftsman's Terrace. Still no shop. With the obvious locations having failed, he took the risk of asking a passerby. Staying in the shadows with the hood over his head, he asked a young male where he might find an herbalist around here. Unknowing that the fellow he was talking to was a blood elf, the kaldorei pointed in the direction of the Temple Gardens. "Over the bridge and just across from the temple." Kirlothenin flipped a silver coin in the night elf's direction and thanked him before heading off quickly.

He approached cautiously, but had to use extreme caution as priestesses and sentinels roamed and patrolled over the area. Finally, after observing and biding his time, he found it to be easier to approach the shop from another ramp. There was less activity from that direction. Again, he watched the sentinels patrols and found they went by the shop approximately every ten minutes. After one such patrol, he approached the building. Inside were two men he didn't recognize, and Ileeya. No hunter. He assumed one of the men was the hunter's father.

So, over the next couple of days, he watched the store and waited for the hunter to show. When he did, Kirlothenin followed at a distance, looking to see if he left the city where it would be easier to catch him. As he did so, he noticed the hunter talking to what looked like a trainer. Jelune seemed to be growing his skill as a hunter. Although Kirlothenin was confident of his own skills, he decided it wouldn't hurt to have a back up plan. He had plenty of time to scheme as he waited for his opportunity. By the time he overheard the hunter telling his father about going hunting in the Teldrassil forest, Kirlothenin had his back up plan ready to be set.

**...**

Ileeya had just come from her druid training. It was hard keeping up with the routine of core studies, then druid studies, then helping out at the shop. But she at least could look forward to her core studies ending within 4 months. She stopped by the mailbox near the bank to mail a letter Firodren wanted to send, then continued on. It had been two months since she and Jelune had come home and she found herself able to sleep much better. There was no sign of Kirlothenin and she tried to convince herself that he was no longer interested in them. Only a small doubt lingered in the back of her mind.

She entered the shop and saw that Firodren was finishing teaching a lesson to one of his students. She waved to Chardryn. The vendor, who usually sold herb pouches and vials to their customers, was standing in his usual spot

"You're late today." The student left and Firodren gave his foster daughter his full attention.

Ileeya gave a sheepish grin. "Sorry. My lesson's ran a little longer than usual."

Denatharion had told her that they should plan a trip to Moonglade to visit the Great Bear and Cat Spirits. Once she could learn from their wisdom, she would be able to shapeshift into their forms. Ileeya didn't like the idea of leaving Darnassus. In fact, she hadn't left since she and Jelune had returned. At her hesitation, her teacher said, "Don't let _him_ control your decisions." It was nearly the same thing Ysuria had told Jelune. She wanted to go to Moonglade, but something, her fear perhaps, rooted her to the spot as she battled within herself to answer him.

Seeing her struggle, he ended their lesson, saying, "It takes strength of heart to face the unknown. Until you find this within yourself, perhaps it is best not to visit the Great Spirits." He watched her leave. Denatharion strongly believed his student had the strength inside her. But it was up to her to discover this and use it.

Ileeya got right to work in the shop, checking on the latest batch of herbs and recording how many were growing successfully. In a short while, Mehlumis entered the shop, giving Ileeya a nod hello. The scribe and Firodren had begun a friendship after he had helped Jelune rescue her. They spent lunch together regularly, which was Mehlumis's reason for coming today.

Firodren glanced at Ileeya. "We won't be long. Shall I bring you something back?" The elder herbalist knew she could take care of his shop with ease. Ileeya shook her head saying she had brought a little something with her today and waved as they left.

With a practiced hand, she transferred an herb from a small pot into a larger trench filled with enriched soil. So engrossed was she with her work, she didn't see the customer standing there until he cleared his throat. Nor did she notice, when she looked up, that Chardryn was sleeping against the wall. The night elf was blocking her line of sight to him.

Kirlothenin had watched her for a minute, happily digging in dirt and acting very unlike she did when she was his prisoner. For a split second he wondered if he should go through with this plan. But he reminded himself he didn't care about anything anymore so why should he bother thinking about her well being. There was little time before the sentinels arrived on their patrol. He couldn't wait for her to notice him. "Ahem."

She smiled at what she thought was a night elf. She then wiped the dirt from her hands as she turned to greet him. "What can I get for you today?" Kirlothenin gave his own smile. "Some goldthorn will do nicely. I seemed to have run out." He saw her tilt her head slightly as she couldn't quite place where she heard his voice before.

"I'm sorry. I believe we are out of that today. I have some growing, but it won't be ready for a couple of days. Can I get you something else?"

"As a matter of fact...you." As her brows furrowed in confusion, he muttered the words for the portal spell then stepped closer to her. As he did so, he knew she would be able to see through the illusion. "Portals are such fickle things..."

Ileeya gasped as the illusion faded away and she recognized the blood elf. She took a deep breath in. But before her voice could pierce the area with her scream, he pulled her close. One arm wrapped around her waist and arms, holding them tight against her. The other hand reached behind her head. His lips came down and he kissed her. The shock of his action effectively prevented her scream. It took a moment for it to register in her brain to protest the kiss. That moment was all he needed as he pulled her through the portal.

Getting over her shock, Ileeya struggled against him. With her arms pinned to her sides, it was impossible to push away from him so she did the only thing she could think of.

"OW!" The blood elf let her go and put his hand to his lips. She bit him! He saw that she didn't draw blood. "Now that wasn't-" he started to say, but she was no longer there. They were on a little strip of land between a steep mountain side and the Veiled Sea. One quick glance around and he found her running towards the mountain slope. He knew there was no way she would be able to climb it and that she was just cornering herself. Kirlothenin followed, calling out for her to hear, "Do I really have to teach this lesson again?"

He kept a warning tone in his voice trying to gain control over her by will alone. It had worked last time. She got to the slope and found she couldn't climb it, turning around finally to face him as he approached. "You can't escap-" He found himself surrounded with roots as she ran right past him. Kirlothenin muttered a Thalassian curse and cast his blink spell which let him escape the roots. He dropped the mind games and ran after her as she plunged into the Veiled Sea, apparently intent on swimming to safety. Before she could swim too far, however, he trapped her in a frost nova spell. The ice around her feet hindered her ability to swim. He caught up to her, grabbing the ice around her feet. With some difficulty, he was able to drag her back to shore.

Out of breath, he had to fight her flailing arms until he could reach out and put one hand to her temple. "Sleep!" Ileeya went limp and he sighed. Letting himself rest for a few minutes, the blood elf looked at her. When had she become such a spitfire? He had let her surprise him. He scowled as he picked her up. He carried her over to a makeshift shelter made of bits of material from the crashed Exodar ship. He had chosen the spot on Azuremyst Isle for it's isolation. The only way to get here was by swimming or flying. Flight patrols never came this way and the water was ice cold...which was why he was shivering right now.

Kirlothenin muttered some words and lit the fire under the cookpot near the shelter. He then grabbed one of the blankets and covered Ileeya. She was his insurance and the means he had planned to control Jelune. He needed her in good health. The mage used another spell to heat up his hands, running them over his robes to dry them. Then he tied her wrists together, followed by her ankles. Finally, he tied a rope to both and onto a large piece of driftwood that had been used to help hold up the shelter. Pulling the collar out of his bag, he put it around her neck and locked it. Again, he covered her with the blanket and sat down to give himself something to eat and drink. He knew he would need his strength when he went after the hunter.

**...**

Jelune crouched on the branch of the tree. He had been waiting out here for hours when the white spotted saber cat, Duskstalker, had finally shown himself. The animal had been seen on rare occasions to the south of Lake Al'Ameth, and Jelune intended to tame him. The beast feasted on an elfin rabbit, after killing it with one mighty snap of it's jaws. The hunter had to wait until Duskstalker finished eating before attempting to tame him. Slowly, Jelune climbed down the tree and stood at the base. His bow was slung on his back. He wouldn't need his weapons. The great saber-toothed cat had seen him but did nothing yet. As Jelune had made no attempt to attack it, nor had he run away, the beast merely studied him, waiting to see if he should attack or run.

Ever so slowly, Jelune held out one hand with his palm facing the beast. He took a step forward and his eyes were locked with Duskstalker's. Another step forward. The cat started to fall under the hunter's trance. _That's it. I got you, boy. We're going to be friends, you and I_. This was the way a hunter tamed his animal companions. Just another couple of minutes and the beast will be his.

Jelune sensed something amiss. He stopped his progress to listen. If he took his eyes off Duskstalker, the beast will break free of the trance. If that happened, the cat would most likely attack.

Snap!

He turned his head quickly in the direction of the sound and Duskstalker roared as he broke free from the trance. Jelune had to look back at him to judge the cat's attack. At the last moment before the saber pounced, Jelune fell to the ground, rolling towards the beast which, in effect, made it jump right over the top of him. Jelune was up in a second, grabbing his frost trap and throwing it in front of the animal. A block of ice surrounded Duskstalker and Jelune's silver eyes looked around for what it was that had made the noise. He had his bow out with an arrow notched.

Jelune didn't have to look far as a bolt of ice hit him in the shoulder, knocking him half way around. He recovered quickly. "Come out, Mage!" He yelled. "Or are you gonna fight from the shadows like a coward?" He had no doubt it was Kirlothenin. He expected the mage to show up every time he left Darnassus.

"With a marksman such as yourself as an opponent, do you really think I'd make myself an easy target by coming out into the open?"

Jelune sneered. "If that's the way you want to play it." He shouldered his bow and jumped into a nearby tree in one smooth motion. Moving from branch to branch, he kept an eye out for the blood elf. He suddenly stopped and melded into the shadows, notching his arrow once more and keeping silent. Between two trees, he saw the mage slowly step out, looking for him. Jelune took aim and fired the arrow. He was surprised when the arrow went right through him. The clone image disappeared. Jelune notched another arrow.

"I'm not here, to kill you, hunter."

Jelune didn't care. Another image of the mage came into view. Was this the real one? He shot the arrow. No, another clone image.

"In face, I've got a job for you."

This time Jelune scoffed. "You must have taken one too many dips in the sunwell, sin'dorei, if you think I would even consider working for you!"

"Oh, I know you won't consider it...unless..."

Jelune stiffened slightly. The blood elf was too confident. What did he have up his sleeve? A sudden bolt of arcane energy hit him and knocked him off the branch. The arrows and his voice gave his location away. With a strong effort, he just barely managed to tuck into a roll before hitting the slope of the ground. The hunter stood up, once more his eyes darting, searching for the mage. There! The mage was on his carpet near the branch Jelune had just been on. He shot his arrow, and quickly notched the next one.

Kirlothenin was lucky the arrow was slowed as it shot through his carpet. But it still grazed his arm. The mage ducked behind the tree as blood showed on his sleeve. Jelune kept his eyes on where the mage went and slowly crossed one foot over the other as he moved sidewards around the tree.

"...We can make a deal."

"You want a deal? Fine. You stop cowering behind a tree and I'll shoot you. That sounds like a great deal!"

"You shoot me, you'll never find your sister."

Jelune froze. No way! The mage could never have infiltrated Darnassus! And Ileeya hasn't left the city since they got back! "Liar!" He continued his search.

"Suit yourself. Maybe I'll just see if she will be able to do your job instead."

Jelune hesitated again. The mage seemed so sure of himself! There he was! Jelune shot the third and final clone image. Just then, another bolt of arcane energy hit him, knocking him to the ground. Jelune grunted and rolled back up only to duck as a fireball just missed his head. It didn't miss, however, the ice trapped Duskstalker.

The ice melted and the great saber cat shook itself with an angry glare at the only one it could see. Jelune had to quickly shift his attention to the animal. It took a moment for Duskstalker to gather it's strength, then bounded over to the hunter. Jelune thought to use his earlier trick, but the cat was too smart. It didn't pounce this time and instead swiped at him as it reached him. Jelune cried out in pain as he was knocked off balance, falling to the ground. His mail armor saved his leg from being torn to shreds. He turned just as the great saber cat pounced.

Instead of claws tearing at his chest, hooves landed clumsily on top of him. He could feel one of his ribs crack from the weight of the animal. Instead of jaws biting into his neck, a soft muzzle had fallen against his chin. Instead of a mighty roar, there was a meager "Baa-a". Duskstalker had been polymorphed into a sheep. Jelune blinked in surprise, trying to push the creature off of him.

The mage appeared in his field of vision. Before he knew it something touched his temple and he heard the word 'sleep'. The world went black.


	10. Chapter 10

Firodren and Mehlumis returned to the shop only to find Chardryn asleep and no Ileeya. The herbalist was immediately concerned. Chardryn never fell asleep on the job and Ileeya never went anywhere without telling someone. He woke the other night elf and asked where Ileeya was. The elf glanced where he saw her last and then shook his head. Firodren's face began to pale as he looked at where she normally worked. There was an herb half planted in a trench.

"I sense some fading strands of arcane magic used in here." Mehlumis raised a hand as if he wanted to try to catch the strands. He concentrated for a few minutes but finally shook his head. "It may have been a portal, I'm not sure. It's been too long since it was used." Mages can sometimes trace strands of magic and have been able to find where a portal had gone to, but it usually has to be within a minute or so of the portal's use. "I'm sorry, my friend. I cannot be of help this time," the old scribe said in a regretful voice. Firodren didn't give up. He turned and called to the sentinels patrolling nearby.

**...**

Ileeya slowly woke up wanting to stretch her arms and legs but she couldn't. She opened her eyes to find her limbs were tied up with a rope. With a groan she tried to sit up and look around. Ileeya hadn't really looked at her surroundings while she had tried to escape Kirlothenin. The first thing she saw was the familiar water elemental standing guard about ten feet away. That meant Kirlothenin was not here. Ignoring the elemental, she scanned the area. She was under some sort of shelter. Spread in front of her was the a large body of water. She could not see any land in the distance. She shifted her position. Behind her was a steep mountain. Two large trees grew on the small beach. From the look of the material used in the shelter as well as some nearby debris that looked like it had once been a part of the Exodar ship, she guessed she was somewhere near or on Azuremyst or Bloodmyst Isles.

Ileeya now turned her attention to the ropes holding her wrists and ankles. With a quick glance at the water elemental, she tested the ropes. They were too tight to wiggle out of. She noticed the blanket that now surrounded her on the ground. It must have been covering her before she sat up. Ileeya grabbed the blanket and covered her ankles. She had no idea if the elemental would try to stop her if it saw her trying to untie the ropes. She worked as quickly as possible, but the knot was very tight.

The night elf looked around for something sharp. She only saw the cookpot and a plate with a spoon nearby. No forks or knives. It was then she noticed that a smell emanated from the cookpot. Scooting a little closer, she opened the lid to see some sort of stew was brewing inside. Her stomach growled, but she ignored it and closed the lid. Then she saw the fire underneath the cookpot. Maybe she could burn the ropes. She'd have to be careful, though. She could just as easily burn herself as the ropes. Another furtive glance at the water elemental and she moved her wrists near the fire. The heat began to burn at her hands, but she kept them there, enduring it as long as she could. When she could no longer stand the pain she pulled back and looked at the ropes. They were scorched, but not burnt through. The side of her hands had minor burns and a couple of small blisters had appeared. Ileeya muttered a prayer of healing, but the pain remained. She reached up to her neck and groaned. _That stupid collar_!

A flash of light caught her attention as a portal opened up. Kirlothenin stepped through carrying the body of a night elf who was also tied up. He put the body down and Ileeya gasped as she recognized her brother. "Jelune?" Her heart beat faster at how pale her brother looked. She pulled against the rope holding her to the shelter as she wanted to get closer to her brother. "Is he...?"

"No." Kirlothenin approached her and started to untie her wrists when he stopped, noticing the burn marks on her hands. His eyes darkened for a moment as he looked up at her. She said nothing but glared back at him with a look that said '_What did you expect_?' Kirlothenin went back to untying her wrists, keeping her ankles tied. Once finished, one of his hands reached up and held her chin, forcing her to look at him. "Your brother needs healing. But I won't take the collar off unless you promise not to try to escape or use any of your abilities against me."

Ileeya's eyes quickly looked sidelong towards her brother then back at the blood elf. With a swallow, she nodded her head. "I promise." _This time_, she thought to herself.

He removed the collar, but before she could crawl (_as her ankles were still bound_) to her brother, Kirlothenin stopped her and grabbed her wrists. He turned her hands so that the burned parts showed. "Heal yourself first." She didn't want to waste time arguing with him so she cast the healing spell on her hands and the redness disappeared along with the small blisters. She finished crawling to her brother's side, unsure of what exactly was wrong. She placed her hands on him and muttered her healing spells. As Broll had predicted, Ileeya had excelled in learning the healing spells of the druid. Denatharion was able to teach these skills to her quite quickly. Her other abilities as a druid, however, left much to be desired.

When she was finished, she sat back on her knees and stared at her sleeping brother. Questions now started to flit through her mind, the top being what in Azeroth were they doing on this small beach? Why did he want her to heal her brother when he obviously tried to kill him? If he was after Jelune, why did he take her...again? Another question tried to form in the back of her mind, but she pushed it farther back refusing to even acknowledge it.

Kirlothenin had not spoken while she did her healing. Ileeya finally noticed how unusually quiet he was and stole a glance in his direction. The blood elf was leaning against the shelter, his eyes closed. Was he asleep? Or just resting? Something then caught her eye. His sleeve was torn and red. He was injured. Most likely from the fight with Jelune. A dark glare came over her face as a fierce battle within herself raged. He's the enemy and had done her and her brother harm! But he has helped as well. Her mind recalled the fight with the witch doctor, and how afterwards he had allowed her to heal her brother, trusting her even though he shouldn't.

With a growl to herself, she crawled towards him and put a hand on his arm. Almost as fast as lightning, his own hand snatched hers and he opened his eyes, watching her. She stared back, making sure he didn't try anything. When he didn't move, she reached with her other hand and muttered her healing spell. He released her and sat up.

"Why did you do that."

"Don't expect me to do it again!" She spit out venomously. "That was for allowing me to heal my brother after the troll hurt him. That's all." She turned her back on him as she felt herself growing angrier with herself.

She heard movement behind her and then his hand on her elbow. He pulled her up to a standing position. Ileeya refused to look at him. After what seemed like a hesitation, the rope fell across her wrists and he began to tie her up once more. He then replaced the collar. "Eat. You'll need your strength."

Kirlothenin then moved on to Jelune He dragged him to one of the trees and tied him up against it. He then returned to the shelter and dished out some stew for himself out of the cookpot and sat down. The mage was obviously tired. "We'll be flying for a few hours. I'm not stopping to feed either of you. So you better eat," he said after observing that she hadn't even tried to get some food.

"Where are you taking us?"

He pointed south. "That way."

"Why not just telepo-"

"-Because we're flying!" His voice held a warning tone. Kirlothenin wasn't about to admit how weak he felt right now. First struggling with her and then her brother as well as using his magic to get them here had drained him. And he knew he had to conserve his energy for the job ahead.

"Let us go."

"No."

"What do you want with us?"

He sighed and set down his spoon. "You? You're merely insurance. A means to control your brother. Him? He's going to do a job for me."

"He won't do it."

Kirlothenin was tiring of this conversation. "He will if he wants you safe!" The mage stood up and moved farther away so as to end the conversation.

**...**

Jelune moaned and awoke, finding himself tied up against a tree. He wasn't in the Teldrassil forest anymore. Where was he? There was a shelter on a beach in front of him. Beyond that the sea. A water elemental stood near the shelter and the blood elf was close to the water, facing it. "Sin'dorei!" He yelled. Kirlothenin turned to face him. He had a dish in his hand, apparently he had been eating. The mage slowly approached him, pausing at the shelter to set the plate down. He then disappeared behind the shelter. A moment later he came back out dragging Ileeya with him. Jelune's eyes narrowed, hatred pouring from them. So, the sin'dorei wasn't lying after all.

Kirlothenin pushed Ileeya forward until they were just a few feet away from Jelune. The mage kept a grip on Ileeya's arm. From what the hunter could tell, his sister was unharmed. He looked into her eyes, silently asking if she were okay. Ileeya gave a slight nod. The mage spoke up finally. "I have a proposition for you, hunter."

Jelune glared at him. "I don't make deals with blood elves!" he growled.

The mage pretended not to hear him. "You're going to do a job for me." Jelune looked at him like he was crazy. "And in return, you get your sister back." Jelune's eyes flicked from the blood elf to Ileeya then back again. "And afterwards, I promise to leave you two alone. You'll never see me again."

What good is the word a blood elf? Jelune remained silent as he thought through his options. "Let her go now. Show me you're not the coward I think you are."

Kirlothenin only shook his head. "No. I won't do that. You see, I don't like backstabbers, and that's just what you'll do if you didn't have to worry about her." He pulled Ileeya in front of him and put one hand firmly on each shoulder as if to emphasize his point. "She stays with me until the job is finished."

"Coward!" Jelune taunted.

Kirlothenin didn't rise to the bait. "No. Prudent. Do we have a deal?"

Jelune was running out of options. "What happens if I refuse?"

Kirlothenin smiled to himself. The hunter was wearing down. Good. "If you refuse," he moved one hand to the side, forming a small fireball and letting it float just above his open palm. "I guess I won't need you." Jelune watched the fireball, but didn't seem to be afraid. Kirlothenin upped the stakes. "As for her, I'll either have her try to do your job," he frowned and shook his head as if he didn't think she'd survive. "Or," he purred, a glint in his eyes, "I'll just keep her around. After all, I do find her to be rather, amusing." Ileeya stiffened in his grip, though Kirlothenin really didn't care for the option himself. He had no permanent home and had no interest in dragging her around. However, he knew that if the brother thought there was more at stake then his own life, he would be more compliant. "Either way, the only way she gets returned home is if you do this job."

If looks could kill... Jelune felt his anger boiling into rage and had to force himself to calm down, which was extremely difficult. "Fine!" his voice was barely under control. "I'll do it. But I promise you this, _sin'dorei_," he spat out the word as if it were a curse, "afterwards I'll hunt you down and put an arrow through your skull!"

Getting his promise, Kirlothenin only shrugged off the threat. He pushed Ileeya down to sit next to her brother as he moved back to the shelter, out of sight now.

Ileeya reached over to Jelune and took his bound hands. He needed to take a few minutes to calm down but eventually looked at her. "How?" His voice was softer as he spoke with his sister. Ileeya told him how she had come to be captured. At the mention of the kiss, Jelune growled. "You let him kiss you?"

"No I didn't _let_ him kiss me!" She snapped back. "I was shocked that he even attempted such a thing. Besides, it was obviously meant to silence and distract me long enough to push me through his portal!" She was irritated at her brother. But, she forced herself to take a deep breath and calm down. They needed to work together, not bite each other's heads off. She changed the subject, asking how Jelune had come to be captured. He told her and the two fell silent.

"We'll get out of this, Ilee. I promise." Jelune felt her rest her head against his chest and he squeezed her hand, the only thing he could do to help comfort her right now.

**...**

They were flying through the air, slowly headed down the Darkshore coast towards Ashenvale. The sun was creating a spectacular sunset, but it went unnoticed by the travelers. Jelune, with his wrists still bound, sat astride a wyrven. There was a rope tied from one foot to the other underneath the beast. He gripped the animal's mane, but had no control over it. The beast followed another wyrven. Even if he had control of the beast, Jelune would not have deviated from the course. Ileeya was on the other wyrven with Kirlothenin behind her. The mage had wisely separated them, keeping his '_insurance_' with him and having no doubt the hunter would follow. Kirlothenin had Jelune's weapons stored somewhere as well. "What am I expected to do in this _job_?" He had to speak a little louder so as to be heard over the wind.

"You'll know when we get there."

"I need to know so I can prepare." He tried again.

"Be prepared to fight."

Jelune sighed. The mage clearly didn't want to divulge any information before he was ready. Ileeya's voice spoke up. "Where are we going?" Kirlothenin was silent for a moment and Jelune thought he wasn't going to answer her question.

"Right now, Zoram'Gar Outpost. Tomorrow, Dustwallow Marsh." Jelune and Ileeya glanced at each other. Did he know they had sought temporary shelter in Theramore before? His hopes rose a little. So close to Theramore, they may yet find a way to escape and can seek shelter within the Alliance town.

The sun had set by the time they had reached the outpost. When they landed, a couple of orc guards immediately approached, their weapons at the ready. The blood elf spoke to them in orcish and what looked like the orc in charge of the outpost approached. He gave the two night elves a dirty look before speaking to Kirlothenin. The conversation went back and forth. It finally ended as the blood elf handed over a small bag of gold coins and two of the guards started to untie Jelune from his mount. "They're taking you to their holding cell. I would suggest not resisting." Jelune didn't resist but glanced as Ileeya had gotten off the wyrven to join her brother. Kirlothenin grabbed her arm and pulled her back. "Not you. You stay with me."

Jelune didn't like this one bit. He wanted his sister within sight at all times! "Leave her alone. Let her stay with me!" One of the orc's raised his sword threateningly.

Kirlothenin shook his head. "It's too risky having you two together...too easy to attempt an escape. No. She stays with me." He refused to argue about it and turned towards the inn. Ileeya put up a small bit of resistance, wishing to stay with her brother, but when his grip dug into her arm, she decided it wiser to follow. Helpless to change the situation, Jelune gritted his teeth and reluctantly went with the orcs.

They entered the room and Ileeya immediately found a spot on the floor next to the wall. She was familiar with this routine. The mage removed his robe and draped it across a chair. His cream colored tunic was stained on the arm where he had bled earlier. The breeches were not gold this time, however. They were red. With a tired motion, she watched him stretch his arms over his head before sitting down to take off his boots. The silence in the room broke when a loud grumble was heard.

Ileeya looked down as her hand went to her stomach. The blood elf glanced in her direction at the sound. She never did eat the stew. A minute later, a piece of conjured bread was put in front of her face. Ileeya looked up to see Kirlothenin standing there, handing her the bread. She must have imagined the look on his face as she first glanced up. It was almost a look of...concern? She took the bread and barely whispered, "Thank you." He grunted in response and moved back to the bed.

Ileeya slowly chewed the bread and noticed that he had put a cup of water on the table near her. She took it and drank nearly half of it, not realizing she was so thirsty. She watched him as he sat on the bed, one leg on the floor, the other on the bed. His back was resting against the wall. His eyes were closed. So she was surprised when he spoke. "You're staring." He opened his eyes and looked at her.

She averted her eyes, looking at the bread instead. "Why us?" At his raised eyebrow, she reiterated her question. "You could have hired someone else. Taken someone else. Why us?"

"Your brother is the one who challenged _me_, remember?"

"He did not," she said matter-of-factly. "He said what he did only to keep you from taking me, and you know it! _You're_ the one who turned it into a challenge."

The blood elf's eyes narrowed shrewdly as he gazed at her._ Smart girl_. Even though he was tired and wanted to go to sleep, he stood up and slowly walked over to her, squatting down to be at the same eye level. He studied her in silence for a moment. Something about her had changed since the last time they had met. She'd gained a bit of control over her fears...but not all. Kirlothenin recalled how quickly she attempted to escape this afternoon. It was nearly instinctual. But other times, he could play on her fear. It was his observations of people that allowed him to be able to dominate them.

That was his style. He didn't have to use much violence if he could just play upon their own fears and keep them off-balanced enough. As he watched her silver eyes he saw as they slowly went from being partly defiant, partly curious, to being unsure, to finally having a slight look of fear before she turned away from him. Ahh, so that was her weakness. She was fine if it was a burst of adrenaline. But the more time she had to think about her fears, the more her fears took hold of her. Kirlothenin stored that bit of insight for possible use later.

"I didn't hear any complaints when I made that portal to Goldshire, for you." He kept his voice soft, staying where he was and still staring at her face. He knew he was making her uncomfortable. He didn't care.

She looked back at him, feeling perplexed. "Why did you do that?"

He shrugged. "Not much of a challenge if I started hunting your brother right away," he lied smoothly.

Her eyes darkened. "Are you really going to leave us alone after this?"

At this, the blood elf stood. Her question reminded him of another promise he had made to himself. "Yes." He summoned the water elemental and then lay down on the bed with his back to her, done with the conversation.


	11. Chapter 11

The next day the trio had set off again. Ileeya and Kirlothenin on one wyrven and Jelune tied to the other. The sleep did it's purpose and the blood elf was acting more like his normal, arrogant self during the flight. It took them approximately four hours to get to Brackenwall Village in Dustwallow Marsh.

Just as before two guards, this time ogres, approached eyeing the two night elves menacingly; another conversation in orcish, another bag of gold. This time, however, the guards did not escort Jelune to some holding cell. Instead three of them, an ogre and two orcs, after grumbling and throwing hateful glances at Jelune, left the village. The hunter looked at Kirlothenin wondering what the sin'dorei was up to. The answer came soon enough as some shouting was heard outside the walls. A heavy snapping sound and the low growl of an animal mixed with the voices of the orcs and ogre. Another minute and they returned, a crocolisk caught in some ropes that retreated into long hollow sticks. They steered the animal until it was sitting right in front of Jelune.

"What's going on?" Ileeya's voice spoke heavy with concern. Jelune had been about to ask the same question.

Kirlothenin's voice dripped with sarcasm. "Don't tell me the big bad hunter is afraid of one of the beasts he's supposed to be master over?" There was some laughter heard from those Horde in the camp who spoke common. Then more laughter as they translated for those who did not. A circle began to form around them as various villagers became interested in what was happening.

Jelune sent him a glare. "What's with the showmanship, coward? Too chicken to kill me yourself so you're going to have the croc do it for you?"

Ileeya stiffened, and instinctively headed for her brother. Kirlothenin's hand held her back but he didn't bother looking at her. "I told you, kaldorei. You're to do a job for me. You can't very well do it if you're dead." Again, murmuring was heard among the small crowd.

Jelune glanced at the crocolisk as it angrily snapped at one of the poles holding it in place. He decided to be silent and wait for the blood elf to reveal his purpose.

Kirlothenin once more laughed. "Look at this!" He waved a hand towards Jelune and the crocolisk. "A hunter who doesn't know how to tame a beast!" More laughter was heard.

Ileeya became incensed and turned to Kirlothenin. "Considering where we are and what position we are in, one can only expect him to be wary of what your plans are!"

The blood elf gave her a look of dismissal. "Hush, child, you're ruining the fun." Ileeya's anger burst over when she heard him call her a child. He'd been calling her that off and on and she was tired of it. "Don't call me that!" With all her strength, she thrust her bound hands forward and pushed the mage backwards. This time, Jelune grinned at the sight of the mage falling on his rear.

Huge hands grabbed Ileeya and she felt something heavy cover the top of her head. "Maybe crush skull!" It was one of the ogre guards. She could feel the strength of his hand as the ogre growled waiting for the order on whether or not to kill her.

Kirlothenin stood up, dusting himself off. He glanced towards Jelune to make sure the hunter was restrained. Two guards held him in place. Good. He then walked slowly up to Ileeya letting her wonder about his retaliation. Putting one hand on her chin he purred out, "Do I have to silence you like I did before?" He had no intention of kissing her again, especially with all the Horde onlookers. But that didn't matter. What mattered was his influence over her. He watched as her silver eyes went wide, fear slowly replacing the defiance. More importantly, she did not speak. The mage smiled. "I didn't think so."

He turned his attention to Jelune ignoring the daggers the hunter threw at him with his eyes. "Tame it. You'll need it for your job tomorrow." Kirlothenin's voice was now serious. Jelune stared at him. The mage sighed. "I may not be trained in the way of the hunter, but I am observant enough to see that hunters use beasts in their fights. Do they not?" He started to wonder about his choice for this job.

"They do. But I can't take a freshly tamed beast into a fight without training...especially a fight I know nothing about."

"You have the rest of today to do what training you need to do here in the village. We fight tomorrow morning."

Jelune sighed. He then changed his thoughts. How to turn this to his advantage. He glanced at his sister, still being held by the ogre. Then he looked around at their 'audience'._ Not much chance_, he thought to himself. If he tried anything...well, anything obvious, then he would just be dead. Still, taming the crocolisk would give him one advantage. "I can't tame him while I'm tied up." There was a moment's hesitation as the mage's gaze narrowed. Then at his short nod, one of the orcs came up and untied Jelune. The mage moved next to Ileeya as if to silently remind him to not try anything.

Jelune made eye contact with the crocolisk and raised his hand, palm out. After he was sure the beast's gaze was locked on his own, he slowly motioned for the animal's handlers to let it go and step away. Ever so slowly, he approached the reptile never looking away. The animal watched him, falling under the hunter's trance. Another minute and Jelune was next to the animal, touching the top of it's head with his hand. "I need some meat, fresh. Once he takes food from my hand he'll be more loyal."

Kirlothenin tossed the nearby butcher some silver coins and the food was thrown to Jelune. He fed the crocolisk and the animal seemed to be content. Jelune then proceeded to start training the crocolisk in various skills. The small crowd watched at first, but soon grew disinterested when it became apparent that the reptile wasn't going to tear the night elf to pieces. Soon, only those who were guarding him watched the training.

That evening, Jelune ate a meager dinner of some unidentified meat and dry bread in his holding cell. The crocolisk stayed tied up outside. He had given the reptile the temporary name, Scales. Jelune had watched the blood elf take his sister away into the inn earlier and cursed himself for not being able to think a way out of this mess. His mind turned to what lay in store. The sin'dorei's only clue was that he was to fight. But who? What? How many? Where? He finished his dinner and washed it down with a bitter brew the ogre had given him with the meal. He leaned back on the stone platform that served as a bed, falling asleep quickly.

**...**

Kirlothenin navigated through the inn's wide corridor's. At first it seemed that the whole of the inn was was one large cave-like room. However, hidden off to the side was a corridor which led to the individual rooms that guests stayed in. They were spacious to account for the large size of the Stonemaul ogres who lived in the village. Their original home had been overrun by some black dragonkin and they now reside in this village until such a time as they could retake their old home.

He carried a large dish in one hand and a large cup in another. These, apparently, were small portions... _for ogres, maybe_. He had grown tired of his conjured food on this trip. And so bought what the innkeeper offered as a dinner. The blood elf entered the room and dismissed the water elemental, only to find Ileeya glowering at him near the door, ice holding her to the floor. Kirlothenin smiled in amusement. "So, you finally decided to test my elemental."

He set the food down and cast the spell to release her. She immediately knelt to the floor to rub her feet which had become numb from the ice. He watched her for a moment, then turned back to his food. "Serves you right."

There was too much food, so he put a portion on another plate for her. The food wasn't too bad. The meat was cooked well enough, though the bread was dry. He had to wash it down with what the innkeeper had called Gok Brew. _"It good brew. Has kick. Give good sleep._" Apparently it was his latest creation for the next Brewfest holiday and he wanted the mage to give his opinion on it later.

The brew at first was bitter-tasting, but went down smoothly and had a sweet aftertaste. "Eat. You'll need your energy for tomorrow. I even sent food to your brother." _He better be smart enough to eat it_, he thought to himself.

Ileeya didn't want to move yet. It felt like pins and needles were coursing through her feet. So, she sat there rubbing her feet, taking off her boots to do so. "What happens tomorrow?"

"You'll find out tomorrow." He stared at her feet for a moment as a distant memory tried to emerge. He pushed it back and looked away. She eventually joined him at the table and picked at the food. She only took one sip of the brew, however, not liking how strong it was. Yes, the brew was quite strong, he decided as he could feel his skin start to warm from the effects of it. He decided to stop drinking it. In fact he stood up and gave a good stretch before summoning his elemental for the night. The brew seemed to be making him rather tired. He took off his robe and then his boots before climbing into bed, not noticing that Ileeya also had fallen asleep.

**...**

As he slept, the blood elf's body began to twitch. Dreams, unwanted, and unbidden came forth. Dreams full of memories he had so long tried to repress. Now, thanks to the alcohol in his system, they have found a new strength to surge forward, to remind him... Unwanted memories can turn into unwanted nightmares...

_...Have you heard the news?..._

_Kirlothenin stepped out of Dalaran's famous library into the bright sunlight. It was a warm day, and full of life. His footsteps took him quickly home where N'lar was waiting for him. She always got home first. He scooped her up and gave her a great kiss. "And how's my lovely wife today?"_

_N'lar's blue eyes twinkled. "I've been to the medical facility."_

_Kirlothenin suddenly gave a look of concern. "Are you okay?"_

_Her laugh bubbled over. "Never better!"_

_"Then why-"_

_"We're going to have a baby!" Kirlothenin picked her up and swung her around, kissing her. There was no better news for the couple._

_...Have you heard the news?..._

_N'lar's black hair was in a ponytail, bound at the base of her neck. "Stop being a worrywart! I'm only a few months along. I'll head back to Quel'thalas and get our home there in order as well as the new shop. You know I can handle it! But it won't be a successful shop if you don't go and get the supplies." She continued as she put on her boots._

_"You'll miss this place, you know." Kirlothenin's blue eyes teased her._

_She teased right back. "Yeah...but not you!" She stuck out her tongue then dodged his grab at her. With a laugh, he chased after her and easily caught her up in his arms. "Care to try that again?" he challenged. She answered by giving him a kiss and pulling him to their bedroom._

_...Have you heard the news?..._

_Kirlothenin had looked all over the place for the perfect gift until he finally saw something he knew she would love. A simple silver chain with a charm on it in the shape of a diamond. He had just finished putting it away when an associate had approached. "Have you heard the news?"_

_"The scourge have marched on Silvermoon and head towards Quel'thalas!"_

_Everything turned gray. Dalaran was gray. The sky was grey. The people were grey._

_...Have you heard the news?..._

_"Kir?" He turned around. There she was! She was safe! He ran to her. "Where were you?" He stopped. "Why didn't you come?" She was no longer the beautiful N'lar he loved. She was dead.  
>No.<br>Undead..._

_...Have you heard the news?..._

_He followed Kael'thas, fury fueling his fight against the scourge. He followed his leader who followed a naga.. He followed his leader into the Outlands. There he stopped. He lost his faith in Kael'thas. He followed Voren'thal._

_...Have you heard the news?..._

_It wasn't enough. They lived in Shattrath. Shattrath wasn't home. His anger still burned. The scourge still roamed. He didn't want to care anymore. N'lar's face shown before him just out of reach. "_Where were you?_" She disappeared. He closed himself off.  
><em>

_...Have you heard the news?...  
>...<em>Where were you?<em>..._

_They were marching on Northrend! He went as a mercenary for hire. His goal was to get to Icecrown... he was too late. Someone else killed the Lich King first._

_...Have you heard the news?...  
>...<em>Where were you?<em>..._

_He didn't care anymore. He pushed his feelings deep inside. He would never care again._

_...Have you heard the news?...  
>...<em>Where were you?<em>..._

_"Kir?" He turned. She was there. Whole. Alive. He ran to her and stopped to make sure she was alive. "N'lar." He kissed her._

_...Have you heard the news?...  
>...<em>Where were you?<em>..._

_He missed her. She was back. He hadn't cared. But now he does. He won't let her go. She was-  
><em>

_...Have you heard the news?...  
>...<em>Where were you?<em>..._

_"NO!"  
><em>

Kirlothenin gasped as he woke up. His heart pounded and he was out of breath. Beads of perspiration trickled down his back.

**...**

They had left half an hour ago from the village. The sun was still rising. There were no jokes from the mage this morning. In fact, he was cold and distant, not that either of them expected him to be friendly. But something was different. Jelune thought perhaps it was due to the 'job' this morning. He didn't dwell on it. They were flying south and he was keeping his eye's peeled for any sign of Theramore. He saw some sort of paved road, but not the city itself. The dampness of the marsh made the air feel cold against his skin.

He saw many different animals below as they flew to their destination. There were raptors, spiders, crocolisks, and winged serpents all making their own way through the marsh in their usual business. He saw an old burned building and an alliance tower in disrepair. They passed a cave and hill surrounded by great fences which he assumed was the former home of the Stonemaul Ogres. They passed what looked to be the start of a goblin town.

They kept flying until they came to a small mountain surrounded by black dragonkin. There they stopped and hovered high above. Jelune glanced at the mage. He couldn't be serious! He'd never been here, but he had heard enough about this place that he knew what it was right away! Even though Onyxia was dead, this place was still very dangerous.


	12. Chapter 12

"No! We are _not_ going in there! It's swarming with dragonspawn!"

"And you called _me _the coward," Kirlothenin growled towards the hunter.

Jelune glared at him. "Leave Ileeya back at that goblin town at least."

Kirlothenin's voice was flat. "And then you'll just willingly go waltzing in there just because I asked?" His eyes narrowed. "I don't think so." He navigated his mount to fly over to the mountain range that separated Dustwallow Marsh from Thousand Needles. They landed on a cliff where they couldn't be seen by the dragonspawn or whelps who roamed the area around Onyxia's Lair. He seemed intent on looking for something.

Ileeya adjusted her position on the wyrven. The long flight yesterday and the day before made her a bit sore. She gave her brother a worried look. They hadn't expected dragonkin. Were they prepared for this? Jelune looked back at the lair below trying to figure out what reason the mage had to be here. He was about to ask, when Kirlothenin spoke up first.

"They say a black drake makes an appearance around here every once in awhile." The mage's eyes never left the scene below them. "The drake's name is Brimgore."

Jelune waited a moment, but when the blood elf didn't continue he prompted, "So?"

"So... Where does he come from? And where does he go that he disappears from sight?"

"That's it? You dragged us all this way to find out where a dragon lives?"

Kirlothenin's only response was a quick glare at the hunter and a silence spell. "He was last seen in the area about a week ago. He's about due to show up." The mage was relying on information provided by his client. It was said that a man had discovered Brimgore's home by accident. And it was by the greatest luck that he was able to escape alive. But it wasn't just the discovery of the drake's home that his client was interested in. No, the man had told a tale of exploring the home first only to discover something that his client was very interested in obtaining. The last bit of the man's tale is one that Kirlothenin found very interesting. Brimgore supposedly lived inside Onyxia's lair. Many thought it impossible to get inside as the entrance had been sealed and protected by a magical barrier put in place by Jaina Proudmoore. If that was so, then how did the drake get in and out?

Kirlothenin knew he could probably take on one dragonspawn at a time, and even the whelps that were around. But tackling the drake alone is near suicide, even if he _was_ a talented mage. He blinked as he thought he saw movement. "There!" He pointed to a spot behind a large charred tree that was up against the back of Onyxia's small mountain.

Jelune and Ileeya looked where he was pointing. At first they saw nothing. But after focusing for a couple of seconds, they saw a large black drake emerge from what looked like the very mountain side itself. It seemed to be a back entrance of some sort that was magically hidden to look like a part of the terrain. Brimgore stretched his wings and flew up into the air, unaware of having an audience. He circled the lair a couple of times before coming to rest on a hill at the front of the lair.

Kirlothenin took out a dagger and sliced Jelune's ropes on his wrists. He then guided his wyrven up and waited for a moment as he watched the small area around the back entrance. If they flew just right, they could quickly dispatch one whelp and one dragonspawn near the area. He removed the silence spell he had put on Jelune and told him what they were doing. A quick fireball burned through the length of rope holding the hunter's feet together under his wyrven. They flew high overhead until Kirlothenin found just the spot to fly straight down and land without being noticed, hopefully.

As soon as they landed, the whelp saw them and breathed fire in their direction. It's squeals and grunts attracted the nearest dragonspawn. Kirlothenin quickly polymorphed the whelp as he jumped off his wyrven and silenced the dragonspawn who was quickly approaching with his sword drawn. Kirlothenin had Jelune's bow and arrows strapped to his back and now took them off, tossing them to the hunter who had summoned the crocolisk to him. With Ileeya placed between the hunter and the mage, both elves attacked the dragonspawn. Arrows and frost bolts flew as the dragonkin attacked the nearest of them, the crocolisk. He was killed in less than a minute. Then they turned their attention to the whelp and made short work of it. Kirlothenin let Jelune get in the last shot as he grabbed hold of Ileeya to make sure the hunter didn't next turn his arrows on him.

With the small area clear, Kirlothenin tested the spot he saw Brimgore emerge from. He thrust his foot in the area and it looked as if it went right through solid rock! He looked at Jelune. "Go in!"

Jelune raised his bow and arrow towards Kirlothenin who kept Ileeya between them as a shield. "We can stand here all day and wait for more dragonspawn to discover us, or even Brimgore to return, or you can get through that hole!" Kirlothenin's voice was harsh and on edge. Jelune narrowed his silver eyes as he considered his options. He was a good shot, but he didn't want to take the chance on hurting Ileeya. It was just too risky. He was also concerned that if he failed, the mage would teleport out with Ileeya, leaving him alone and no clue where to find them again. He had to wait until he had a shot that was true. Slowly, the hunter lowered his bow, then entered the invisible hole.

Kirlothenin kept Ileeya between himself and Jelune at all times. This was dangerous as it was. It would have been better to have just hired someone and shared the reward. _And take the risk of backstabbing_, he thought to himself. Of course there is still the risk of backstabbing with Jelune. But the hunter also has to keep himself concerned with his sister. It was too late to change his mind now, anyhow. They were here and he was going to find the object his client wanted. Then he'll leave Jelune alone to his fate. _And Ileeya_? Kirlothenin frowned as the unwelcome thought came forward. She would hate him for letting her brother die. He steeled himself. He didn't care if she hated him. She already did, whether she knew it or not. He hated himself. No, if he could save her, he would. He won't be seeing her again after this anyhow. One last show of mercy and he'll lock his emotions away once and for all.

They moved down a short corridor that opened up into the large lair that Onyxia had once called home. The lair, as to be expected, was hot; the air stale. Jelune glanced behind him at the entrance to the corridor. It was gone. He stepped back and put his hand on the wall where he thought the corridor was. His hand passed through. So it seemed both entrances to the small corridor were hidden. Who could have put it there? Was it there before the death of the lair's owner? His mind raced over his limited knowledge of dragons. They start out as whelps and grow into drakes. After that they started to grow rapidly in intelligence and become the large dragons. Just how old was this Brimgore drake anyhow?

They were in the middle of the lair by now. Ahead was the large tunnel that lead upward to the main entrance. "Okay. So, we're here. Brimgore is out there. Now what?" He still had no idea what Kirlothenin was after. And unless he planned to trap the drake in here, he wasn't after Brimgore. Then, what was he after? Jelune looked sidelong at the mage. He was still keeping Ileeya between them. Jelune looked at his sister. She was looking around the lair as well. If he could get her attention without alerting Kirlothenin, he'll try to silently get her to duck down and away. That would give him a clear shot.

Ileeya would have been fascinated with this place, if she hadn't been so scared. That drake could come back at anytime. A movement caught her attention and she looked at Jelune. He was mouthing a word and motioning with his hand downward. She looked at the floor and didn't see anything. She looked at him again in confusion. He pointed at her and once more, the downward motion. Understanding came to her and she threw a glance at the back wall, then at Kirlothenin. Her brother wanted her out of the way so he could have a clear shot at Kirlothenin. But she had other concerns. What if that drake came back? Would just the two of them be able to handle it? She was beginning to feel her chest constrict and her breathing more rapid as her fear of this place grew. No, not this place-

A loud roar suddenly sounded behind them. Brimgore! Kirlothenin was immediately in action, sending a frostbolt towards the drake. It hit the creature in one of it's wings. The drake let out it's own fire breath attack. The trio scattered to avoid the flames. Jelune sent the crocolisk after Brimgore as he notched and shot his arrows. Many arrows bounced off it's scaly hide. But some found their mark between the scales. They were slowly backing up as the large drake advanced. Another frostbolt followed by an arcane barrage slowed the drake who turned it's attention to it's closest target. Scales, the crocolisk snapped it's huge jaws at the drake.

"Into the tunnel!" Kirlothenin shouted. The smaller area would make it harder to for the drake to maneuver. They went up the winding tunnel until they came to the sealed entrance.

"Great! You trapped us!" The voice was Jelune's. They glanced behind them as they heard the dying cry of the crocolisk.

"Slow it down!" the blood elf ordered the hunter and he focused on the magical barrier, using his own magic to attempt to disable it.

Jelune looked between two stalagmites down to the next level of the tunnel and saw the drake approach. From his vantage point he grabbed one of his traps and threw it. The drake was surrounded by ice. It held, but he wasn't sure for how long. "He's trapped...for the moment." Jelune watched the mage make different hand gestures and he was murmuring under his breath. Ileeya watched as well. The hunter silently reached out to Ileeya and pulled her away from Kirlothenin, but made no attempt to shoot him. Right now they all needed each other in order to get out of this alive. But at least she was away from him.

"Just another couple minutes." Perspiration appeared on the mages forehead as he continued his attempt to dispel the barrier. A shattering sound was heard followed by another roar.

"No time! Here he comes!" Jelune shouted.

The three watched the drake finish winding it's way up the ramp. It seemed to know it had it's victims trapped as it paused to make another roar. Ileeya felt warm air on her neck as the collar suddenly came off. "Root it!" Kirlothenin ordered.

She obliged as Jelune pointed between the two stalagmites he was previously at. "Down!" He guided his sister between them and she could see the floor of the tunnel below. It didn't look to be too far to jump, and she did so. She was followed by her brother and then Kirlothenin. They took off back to the large cavern area of the lair. "He's using his fire breath to burn through the roots!" Kirlothenin yelled as they emerged into the cavern. They all paused to catch their breath. Something caught the blood elf's eye to the left and he looked down into what used to be the egg hatchery.

The sound of the roots tearing echoed through the tunnel and into the cavern. Brimgore was loose. "Run!" Kirlothenin ordered the two kaldorei. They didn't need to be told twice. The mage didn't follow them. Instead, he jumped down into the hatchery. He was hidden from view here as he made his way to the object his client wanted. There was some sort of slimy substance covering it and he could tell there was a magical quality to it. He removed the cloak from his back and wrapped it around the intact egg. All he needed to do now was teleport out and he'd have his prize.

A furious roar followed by a piercing scream told him the black drake had caught up to the kaldorei. He moved down the hatchery past all the broken eggshells until he could see into the main cavern again. Ileeya was on the ground, trying to pick herself up. The drake was chasing the hunter who turned as he ran on occasion to shoot an arrow towards his pursuer. _Those two greenhorns won't last very long_, Kirlothenin thought to himself as he looked down at the egg and back at the two night elves. He had his prize. They were on their own.

Ileeya stood up on shaky legs. The fire breath had just barely missed her as she had been pushed out of the way by her brother. She now watched him move around the great cavern forcing the drake to keep it's attention on him. Her own fear started to seep into her. They were going to die! Where was Kirlothenin? The drake let out another breath of fire. Jelune barely dodged it. He was getting tired, she could tell. He was also running out of arrows. She looked again, part of his tunic was on fire! Jelune noticed this and dropped to the ground quickly to put the fire out. It took several rolls as there was not much dust in the cavern to help put the fire out.

Ileeya started to run to him, but the drake came between them. Seeing her movement, it now turned it's attention on her. Ileeya stood terrified now. What should she do? _Run_. She couldn't make her feet move. _Uh_.. she couldn't think. _Duck!_ She should duck! Ileeya collapsed to the ground just as a line of fire passed over her head. She heard the drake roar and looked up to see he had turned around and was now aiming his attacks to four Kirlothenin's! One of them called out to her. "Heal your brother!" She ran over to Jelune seeing the chain mail black from the fire and hot against his skin. His face held a grimace of pain. The hot rings of the mail was burning him! She said a quick rejuvenation spell to help him recover as she touched him and cast another healing spell.

With her brother recovering, she glanced at the drake who had just swiped at two of the images of Kirlothenin. They disappeared. Now there were only two. The dragon let out a fire breath and one of the mage's jumped out of the way. The other disappeared. Kirlothenin was backed up against a wall as Brimgore moved forward. Ileeya suddenly recalled her ability to hibernate beasts. It was supposed to work with dragonkin as well. She cast her spell, hoping it worked. It didn't. At least, it started to. But the dragon was hit by a frost bolt that stopped her own spell. Kirlothenin didn't know what she was trying to do. The drake took in a deep breath to burn the mage, but the mage suddenly wasn't there. He had blinked out of the way and then turned to cast some arcane bolts towards the creature. He was tiring. They were all tiring. They wouldn't last much longer in here.

Jelune had recovered enough to sit up. He grabbed for an arrow only to find he had just two left. It didn't matter, though. As he raised his bow, he found it to be broken from his rolling on the ground. The mage hadn't given him his short swords. They were defenseless. Ileeya cast her roots spell again and the drake bellowed in anger as it tore and burned at the roots. She helped her brother up and then ran once more towards the back exit. Where was it? There was nothing on the wall to indicate just where the exit was. The two started to feel the wall, looking for the exit as the tearing of roots was heard. The drake was loose again. They turned just in time to see something red jump on top of the drake. From another direction arcane bolts shot at Brimgore. Ileeya looked in that direction to find it wasn't Kirlothenin! It was a female. She stared in surprise as Jaina Proudmoore attacked the drake.

On top of the drake, Ileeya saw a female blood elf rogue drive a dagger into the base of the drake's skull. Brimgore gave a bellow of pain as it fell to the ground. It's body thrashed, knocking the rogue off who gracefully rolled over and then into a standing position, her other dagger raised in the air ready to defend herself. But it wasn't necessary. One more blast of arcane energy from Proudmoore and the drake was finished. The two females approached Ileeya and Jelune. The blood elf female had a scowl on her face and kept her dagger at the ready as though she thought they would attack her. Jaina had a determined mask on her face, until she recognized Ileeya and Jelune and then she stopped. "What are _you_ two doing in here?"

Two? Ileeya glanced around. Kirlothenin was nowhere in sight.

**...**

"And that's when you two showed up." Jelune finished explaining how they had come to be fighting a drake they had no business fighting inside a lair they had no business being in. Jaina was leaning against one of her bookcases inside her tower. They had returned to Theramore after Jaina once more sealed the lair. The rogue, Valeera Sanguinar, still eyed them suspiciously. The kaldorei siblings eyed her right back. They were wary of any sin'dorei right now, despite her apparent friendship with Proudmoore. Seeing the looks between the three, Jaina stepped forward. "Valeera, can you ask Ysuria to come up here please?"

"Yeah, sure." The rogue turned and went downstairs.

"I know you two have little reason to trust blood elves, but Valeera has no loyalty to neither Horde nor Alliance. Her only loyalty lies with her friends. And she is my friend. Understand?" Ileeya nodded, silently wondering how they had become friends. "Now, do either of you know what he was after in there?"

"No. We didn't even know where we were going until we arrived."

"Was he with you the whole time in there?"

Jelune nodded his head, but Ileeya paused. "There was one time I didn't see him. But I could have just missed him moving into a different position."

"Hmm." Jaina put a hand to her chin as she tried to figure out what he wanted and if he had found what he had been looking for.

"Lady Proudmoore, may I ask a question." Jaina glanced at Ileeya and nodded. "How did you come to be there, in the lair, I mean."

Jaina gave a grim smile. "Your mage was successful at dispelling the barrier I put up, though I don't think he knew it. When it was dispelled, I was alerted. Valeera and I went to investigate and found you two fighting Brimgore."

Ysuria and Valeera returned. "Ysuria, can you prepare a scrying bowl for communication with Darnassus? I believe their father would be relieved to hear they are safe." She glanced at the night elves. "But I must ask you to stay a day or two so that I can sort this out."

Ileeya nodded, glad to be able to communicate with Firodren, but wondering if she and Jelune were still under suspicion.

**...**

He arrived at the coordinates in the note and found the rock it described. With a glance to make sure there were no raptors near, he lifted the rock to find another paper hidden underneath. He picked the paper up and read the words aloud on it. There was no response at first, but soon someone came riding a dragonhawk. The blood elf he had spoken to before, along with a human woman riding a red proto drake. "Were you successful?"

Kirlothenin nodded his head. When dealing with payment from clients, Kirlothenin took many precautions. There had been times in the past in which they had decided they would rather kill him than pay him. They quickly learned he was not easily killed. Now, as he watched the two approach, his senses were on high alert.

"Show me!" Neither blood elf nor human dismounted.

"Gold first." He had taken the precaution of hiding the egg in a spot not too far away.

A large bag that clinked was tossed to him. Kirlothenin kept his eyes on the pair until the bag was opened. He took a quick glance in to make sure it was gold coins, then closed it up quickly and his eyes went back to the pair. "The egg is in a raptors nest sixty paces to the south." He stepped back onto his flying carpet as the human female went to check. He knew he had to wait until the egg was confirmed to be there.

"Aren't you curious what we want the egg for?"

"No. I did a job. I don't need any more details."

The blood elf smiled. "You're very good, Mage. Our organization could use someone like you."

Kirlothenin glanced at him. "I work alone."

"You sure? Having others there for you when you need back up can come in handy."

The mage shook his head. "I don't care about organizations. I don't care about anything except myself. I wouldn't fit in." As the human woman returned with the egg, Kirlothenin flew off without another word.

The woman watched him leave. "Can he be trusted?"

A third voice answered. "Most likely. It's true he is a loner." A night elf rogue showed himself and stepped closer to the other two. "I know he hated working with me the one time he had to."

The blood elf glanced at the rogue. "Maybe he just hated you?"

Thorian Nightblade glared at him before the woman interceded. "What of the two who helped him?"

"They were there against their will. I doubt they know anything."

"Keep an eye on them." She ordered. "All of them."

Nightblade nodded and disappeared.


	13. Chapter 13

_Author's Note: Hm...better prepare a neck brace. This chapter has a twist so fast you might get whiplash...that is, unless you caught the subtle hints from the previous two chapters. :)  
><em>

* * *

><p><em>Four Months Later...<em>

Ileeya thrust the staff forward, pulled it back, then spun around low to the ground, swinging the staff with her. She stood up awkwardly and off balance.

"Hold."

She put one end of the staff down and leaned on it, catching her breath. "Sorry Ilyenia. I'll do better next time."

The weapon master stepped forward. "There's a time to test your limits, and a time to rest. Now is your time to rest, Ileeya. We'll continue the lessons tomorrow." Ileeya gave a short nod of her head, then strapped her staff to her back. She wasn't sure why she felt so tired of late. The young druid walked from the Warrior's Terrace and into the Tradesman's Terrace.

"Hello Ileeya." She glanced up to see a night elf she had met a few months ago. He was in the Warrior's Terrace having a dagger repaired when she had started her staff weapon training. Though he seemed amiable enough, she had been reserved in opening up to a true friendship. Perhaps it was because the last time Kirlothenin had taken her, he had been in the guise of a night elf male. But she shouldn't really worry about that too much. Mehlumis had put up wards in the shop and in her home to prevent teleportation. And most other places were fairly public. Kirlothenin had said he would leave them alone, and has so far kept his promise. Still, she couldn't help but be wary. Ileeya glanced at the the rogue as he joined her in her walk. "How was your staff practice today?" he asked.

She put on a reserved smile. "It could have been better."

He gave his own smile. "You know, I could probably show you a thing or two with daggers. They're a much more graceful weapon than those bulky staves."

"Perhaps sometime. I just want to focus on the staff for now." She didn't like daggers. Staves felt more at home in her hands. Actually, planting herbs and working with the plants felt the most at home in her hands. But she was determined to learn how to better defend herself. "Thank you for the offer, Thorian."

"Another time, then." He stopped his walk, but continued to watch her as she went towards her home behind the Tradesman's Terrace. His smile faded.

**...**

Ileeya had just enough time to take a quick bath and then head over to the Cenarion Enclave for her druid training. Denatharion was still with another student when she arrived. So, she sat down to meditate until her teacher was ready for her. Her mind wandered over the last few months. She and Jelune had stayed in Theramore for a couple of days. Jaina had asked them a few more questions about Kirlothenin and what they knew about him... which wasn't much. She then provided a portal back to Darnassus where Firodren and Mehlumis welcomed them home. Again, they had informed the sentinels of all that had transpired. Then life began to slowly become routine once more.

Ileeya resumed her training with Denatharion. The first thing she told him was that she was ready to go to Moonglade to meet with the Great Bear Spirit. The spirit told her about strength of the body and heart. She must keep physically and mentally fit. "_The bear's girth highlights its strength, as it is a ferocious foe in combat. The bear's girth, however, belies its lithe agility and sharp mind. These are surprises you will use to your advantage_," he had told her. When she asked about strength of the heart, he replied, "_Strength of the heart is what gives you the resolve to take action... action that is rooted in intents that are pure and forthright. To keep the balance is not to be complacent or banal. You must show resolve for that which you believe in, and you must be willing to fight for it. The mother bear shows endless conviction in protecting her young, as does an elder bear protecting his den_."

Ileeya had her own self doubts when the Great Bear Spirit told her these things. She wondered if she could really have enough strength of the body or of the heart...especially of the heart, to receive the blessing of the bear. It was as if he sensed her self-doubts. "_Even the wisest and oldest of druids are never truly ready when their ultimate time of testing comes. Heed what I have taught you. There will be a time when you will have your strength tested_." Ileeya considered this advice odd since she thought she had already had her strength tested... twice.

When she returned to Dendrite Starblaze, the druid who had directed her to the Great Bear Spirit, she told him what the spirit had said. He had thought it over and then said, "The Great Bear Spirit sees something we do not. What that may be, I cannot say." He considered it further before speaking again. "I believe that when the time is right, the Great Bear Spirit will grant you his blessing. Keep alert for it and accept it when it comes." After this, he hesitated to send her to the Great Cat Spirit, but in the end, he decided to send her there to learn the way of the cat. The Great Cat Spirit had only replied that he would not grant his blessing until she receives the Bear's blessing.

The whole trip had been a bit disappointing for Ileeya. The only highlight had been her visit to her sleeping father. She wasn't sure if he was aware of her occasional visits or not, but she enjoyed spending time with him, even if he was hibernating. When she returned to Darnassus, she and Denatharion agreed that she ought to start some weapon training since she would not be able to fight in bear or cat forms until she gets her blessings.

"Ileeya?" She glanced up at her teacher, unsure how long he had been standing there. "Shall we begin?"

**...**

"One might think you have a death wish." Kirlothenin looked up to see a blood elf warlock watching him as a shaman tended his wounds. He didn't respond as the gash in his ribs closed and healed over. "To take on an orc warrior and without any weapons of your own in the arena. There were alot of bets against you." He closed his tunic once the shaman had finished with his torso and waited as the tauren moved on to the wounds on his legs.

"Did you win or lose?" His voice was monotone, not really wanting to talk to her, but not having a choice of leaving just yet. He tried to place where he'd seen her before.

"I won." She smiled and moved a little to get a better view as the tauren had blocked her view in his efforts to heal.

"Lucky you." Kirlothenin finally recalled where he'd seen her before. She tended to show up at the arena matches- an arena groupie. There were many groupies who hung around the arena hoping to get close to the fighters. Some of them seemed to have their own type of 'conquests'.

"Not luck. I've seen you fight a few times before. Each time, it seems to get more and more dangerous for you." She inched closer to him. "So, what was it?"

He glanced at her.

"Lost love? Hated sibling? Murder your parents? What is it that makes you enter the Ring of Valor with the odds stacked against you. What is it that makes you fight for survival despite the apparent desire to get yourself killed?"

The tauren shaman had finished so Kirlothenin stood pulling his robe over his aching muscles. "Someone, somewhere kicked a kitten. And now I'm out to seek revenge for all the poor little battered kittens of Azeroth." Despite the remaining aches in his muscles, he walked out of the room.

Sochera watched him leave, unamused by his sarcastic remark. She may have to hasten things along. If he continues on like this, he'll surely get himself killed within the week. She'll get what she wanted from him, one way or another.

**...**

"Something's not right." Ileeya shook her head, unable to concentrate on the spell. She and Denatharion were just outside Ruth'eran Village where the spell she was attempting would not do anyone else harm.

"You need to concentrate. This spell requires channeling your own energies into it. The resulting storm will continue only as long as you concentrate. If you stop, the hurricane stops. This is not a spell to cast unless you know you can control it."

"Yes, Shan'do." Ileeya tried again. The wind blew faster just over the Veiled Sea near the shore they were standing on. Storm clouds grew darker and lightening flashed. But just as quickly as it began, the storm faded. "I'm sorry. I seem to be having trouble concentrating."

"You've had trouble concentrating for the past couple weeks."

Ileeya sighed. "I know."

"Have you been meditating?"

Ileeya nodded. "But not for too long. Something feels...I don't know. Not right. I'm not sure how to describe it."

"Your past adventures? Do they concern you?"

"Maybe." She shrugged her shoulders.

"Let's try something. I will l need your permission, however."

"What are you going to do?" She asked curiously.

"I'm going to help you find what is troubling you. Sit here." He indicated a spot on some grass. Once she was sitting cross-legged, he sat across from her. "I'll be meditating as well, but my focus will not be inward. Instead, I will focus on you as you meditate. When you come to your troubles, I should be able to sense it. Ready?"

Ileeya nodded and then took a few deep breaths and closed her eyes. She began focusing inwards. Eventually, something started to bother her. Something felt...out of place. It was a part of her, but not. When she stopped her meditation, she looked at her shan'do. He was frowning and remained silent for a few minutes."Well?" She prompted.

"Ileeya, you..." He hesitated, then stood. "Perhaps we should get another opinion."

Ileeya began to get concerned as he lead her through the portal between Ruth'eran Village and Darnassus. Instead of turning left to the Cenarion Enclave as she expected, they turned right and up the bridge that lead to the Temple of the Moon. Entering the tall circular building, Denatharion stopped a young priestess. "Excuse me, we are in need of the services of a priestess."

Tamlia Moonspear nodded her head. "I can help you. What is it you need?"

The elder druid indicated for them to move over to a more secluded area. "My student is having some troubles. I think I have found the source, but I would like a second opinion of someone who doesn't know her."

Tamlia glanced at the younger druid. "I do not know her." Denatharion then proceeded to ask the student to step away as he explained to the priestess what he wanted her to search for. With her acceptance of the task, Ileeya returned to them, and she proceeded to use her magic to examine Ileeya. Looking at Denatharion after she finished, she said in a curious tone, "You were correct."

Ileeya had enough of the secrecy. "What is going on?"

**...**

"That's impossble!" Ileeya looked incredulously at her teacher and the priestess. She then scoured her memories and shook her head. "No. It can't be! I haven't- Nothing has- It's just not possible!"

"Yet it's plain as day for us. It is why you have been unable to meditate well. Your mind is denying what your body is telling you. And your body is telling you that you are pregnant."

Ileeya fell silent as she tried to come to grips with this knowledge. Deep down, she knew they were right, but she has no memory of ever doing anything to make this come about. It felt surrealistic as though it wasn't happening, but it was. "This isn't happening." Ileeya began to pace back and forth as her emotions began to grow more and more out of control. "This can't be!"

Suddenly, she felt a hand on her back and instantly felt calmer, as a soothing light filled her. Tyrande Whisperwind had heard the denials of the young druid and had approached to see Ileeya starting to become more and more hysterical. With a silent prayer to Elune, she soothed the druid and gave a glance towards the younger priestess. "Priestess Moonspear, is there something I can help with?" Tamlia looked at the high priestess, then at Ileeya, unsure of what she should say.

Denatharion, however, spoke up. "She's pregnant, but doesn't know how it happened."

Ileeya began to get irritated. It was still hard to grasp that she was pregnant. Her mind and memories said she wasn't. But neither could she deny what her body was telling her. She felt...unbalanced.

Tyrande raised a dark eyebrow as the druid trainer gave a brief explanation of their discovery. She did her own examination. "Mind block, maybe?"

"Possible, especially considering her past."

"Past?" Another brief explanation. "I see. So _you're_ the sister that went missing." Tyrande considered the situation for a moment before looking at Ileeya. "I can look into your mind and see if there is a block. I cannot guarantee the ability to remove it, however. The question is, do you _really_ want it removed if one is there?"

Ileeya swallowed. Did she? If something happened that was against her own wishes...is that something she would really _want_ to remember? But what actually happened? "Can I stop it if I decide not to go any further?"

"Yes. It will not be without some discomfort, though."

Ileeya considered her options. A part of her didn't want to go through with it. She would have preferred to go on in ignorant bliss. But she was not balanced now. Her mind and body were in conflict. She wouldn't be able to continue her druid training until she could balance herself out. And in order to do that, she had to remove that block.

Slowly, she nodded her head and the high priestess indicated that they should move to one of the back rooms in the temple for more privacy. Once they were gathered there, Tyrande had Ileeya sit in a chair as the priestess put a hand on each side of Ileeya's head without touching her. A white glow formed around Tyrande's hands as she quietly said her prayers to Elune to help guide her mind within.

Ileeya felt uncomfortable as the presence of another came into her mind. The high priestess told her to try and remember anything she could about how this happened. That wasn't hard to do. Eventually, the discomfort started to have more pressure on her mind. The pressure grew until it started to hurt! "Stop!" The pressure and presence retreated as Ileeya leaned forward, resting her head in her hands and waiting for the pain to disperse.

"Are you okay?"

Ileeya took a minute to gather herself before nodding her head, then shaking her head. "It hurt."

"I was getting close. I can tell you this. It's not a natural mental block that you may have put there yourself. It's foreign to your mind. Someone else put that block in place." Tyrande let Ileeya rest for a minute. She had to keep her own emotions in check, irate as she was that someone did this to one of her people. "I can try again, but I don't think I'll be successful. While the Priestesses of the Moon have skill over the minds of others, we have difficulties when it comes to a foreign block within a mind. As much as I dislike to say this, you'll be better off with a skilled mage, as that block has a touch of the arcane about it."

A mage. They all knew how strong of a possibility it was that _he_ could have done this. But why hide it? It just seemed so, well, not like him.

"I can ask one of the Highborne to come..."

Ileeya numbly shook her head. "I'd- I'd rather it be someone I knew."

Denatharion spoke up. "Mehlumis?"

Ileeya considered him, then shook her head again. "No. I don't feel comfortable enough with him for...this."

"Then who?"

She looked at him. "Ysuria? Or maybe Lady Proudmoore. They both know of the previous situation and had asked to be updated if we found out anything new." _And this is definitely something new_, she thought grimly. Ileeya felt angry and empty at the same time. She was angry at her current state and knowing what surely must have happened. She was empty at not having any sort of memory of it. It made the whole thing feel distant, as though it really wasn't a part of her. Oddly enough, she did not feel hate. Why? She had no idea. Perhaps that was locked away behind the block as well.

**...**

Mehlumis had sent a quick message to Ysuria to expect them with a very short note on why. Jaina ended a boring meeting early when Ysuria came to her with the message. A few minutes later, Mehlumis, Ileeya, Jelune, and Tamlia arrived. Tyrande had insisted that Tamlia go with them to help Ileeya for the duration. Jelune had been a barely contained bomb ready to explode ever since he found out. Tamlia had to use her priestly magic to soothe him a few times, but it wasn't much help.

Jaina welcomed them into her home, and Tamlia gave a brief explanation of what had happened. Jelune was too explosive to talk, and Ileeya just wasn't talking unless she had to. She held her arms across herself as Tamlia stood next to her for support. Jaina frowned and glanced at Ysuria. "As you've already found out, there is a risk at trying to remove a mind block, unless it's being removed by the one who put it there."

Ileeya looked at Jaina but said nothing. "I can attempt to remove it and give you some sort of memory, but it will be painful, and..." She glanced at Ysuria who knew what was coming next. "...there is the possibility of doing some damage. Of course, I would try to avoid this, but is this worth the risk? Is knowing really going to help you deal with this?"

Ileeya considered her words carefully before looking her in the eyes and speaking. "A part of me is missing. Something happened that...no, I don't really want to learn if it's as bad as it could be. But right now I feel empty and unbalanced. I feel that I'm one of you, looking back at me like I'm not the one who's suddenly found herself pregnant and not knowing how it came to be. A part of me is missing. I want it back. I want balance between my mind and my body."

Ysuria spoke this time. "Do you want this because of the mind block? Or because you just haven't come to terms with what has happened to you?"

Ileeya's silver eyes looked into her blue ones. "I don't know. But there's only one way to find out."

With that, Jaina stepped forward asking Tamlia to help where she could with whatever pain Ileeya felt. Again, the discomfort and the pressure came to her mind, followed by the pain which grew in intensity. It sometimes fell away as Ileeya felt Tamlia's healing light. Jaina searched the druids mind and found the mental block after a few minutes. She searched for a way to disable or remove it, but each time she thought she had found just he right place, something would happen so that she was unable to remove the block. Finally, she found a weakness. She probed further and focused her attention on that spot. Perspiration appeared on her forehead as she heard Ileeya moan in pain. _Just a little more_... There! A small image poured out.

Ileeya fell to the floor unconscious as Jaina had to keep herself from falling as well. She had missed the trap put in the subconscious of Ileeya's mind. This trap is why Ileeya lay unconscious on the floor now.

**...**

Sochera moved closer to Kirlothenin, dragging her hand against his cheek. She could feel the goose bumps on his skin as it responded to her feathery touch. Kirlothenin lay there watching her move closer to him. His own hand reached up of it's own volition to wrap around her waist. He didn't care about her. He didn't care about anything anymore...even himself. He didn't notice the fog in his mind or the glaze in his eyes. He didn't notice the smug look on her face. He didn't notice the succubus hidden in the corner.

A buzzing sound came to the back of his mind. He paused as her blood red lips drew near. She pushed against him, kissing him, demanding his attention. He ignored the buzz as his other arm wrapped around her. A sudden warning flashed in his mind and Kirlothenin blinked. What was the warning for? He broke the kiss and turned his head as he tried to clear the fog in his mind. He focused on the warning and what it meant. Then it hit him. It was a warning he had put in place. A warning he never really thought he would ever get. Coming fully to his senses, he pushed Sochera aside and stood up only to find his robe and tunic were half off. He threw a glare in the warlock's direction. Damn, she was fast.

Ignoring the warlocks irate curses, he pulled his clothes together quickly and raced out of the Orgrimmar inn. He didn't bother packing or grabbing any supplies. He summoned his flying carpet and took off. There was only one reason he was getting this warning. She knew. He didn't know how, but she knew. And he had to fix it, fast.

* * *

><p><em>Author's Note: This was a hard chapter to write. I almost considered not doing this, but it was a part of my challenge to myself and if I didn't include it, I wouldn't have completed my personal challenge. If you haven't figured it out yet, how this happened will be explained in the next chapter, I hope.<em> _This story is now about half done._ _Thank you for the reviews and feedback. They are much appreciated._


	14. Chapter 14

Jelune thanked the stable master, Reggifuzz, for his help. As his owl, Sosha, flew near, the hunter glanced back over Ratchet trying to decide who to ask next. He was looking for someone who knew the whereabouts of a goblin named Blackwrench. Blackwrench was the goblin who had been working with Kirlothenin before. Jelune hoped to get the goblin to tell him where the blood elf could be. He walked down the hill away from the inn and towards the more central part of town, stopping the occasional goblin to ask his question. He'll ask every goblin in the town if he had to.

After his sister had become unconscious, he left her to those who could help her medically. _He_ was going to help her by hunting down and killing the sin'dorei.

"I'm looking for a goblin named Blackwrench. Know him?" Kilxx the fisherman shook his head. Jelune sighed and turned to continue to the next goblin when a pale yellow color caught his eye. He looked again. A blood elf had his back to him talking to one of the bankers. Jelune pulled out his bow and an arrow as he slowly approached. He looked to have the same hair style and color, about the right height as well. "Kirlothenin!"

The blood elf turned around and froze when he saw the hunter. Jelune had his bow and arrow aimed right at the elf's head. The hunter gave a self satisfied smile at his great luck at finding the mage, then the smile faded as he pulled back the string on his bow. "Did you really think you could get away with it, sin'dorei?" His voice rumbled with hatred. "Oh no." He sneered. "You did what you wanted and then to hide your cowardly act you took her memory from her! You thought she'd never find out!" The mage only stood still watching him with narrow eyes. "Well, you didn't count on her becoming pregnant, did you?" Jelune said with a snarl.

Complete and utter shock ran through every part of Kirlothenin. Pregnant? He had no time to think about this, however as a net flew over Jelune's head. The Ratchet bruisers didn't tolerate any disturbances in their town. Jelune's arrow flew, but his aim had been knocked off from the net. The arrow hit the wall near Kirlothenin's head as the mage watched another net came over Jelune's head. The hunter was yelling, clearly upset that the bruiser's were restraining him and not the mage. Apparently he didn't know or had forgotten that the goblin bruiser's didn't care who did what outside of their town. But, they will restrain the one who's disturbing the peace inside their borders.

The mage approached one of the bruisers. "I thank you for your timely intervention." He pulled out a bag and withdrew some gold coins. "Here is a little token of my appreciation for doing your job so well." He started to go, then paused and looked back at the bruiser. "I do hope he receives the full sentence for disturbing the peace." The bruiser gave a toothy smile and a short nod as he pocketed the gold.

Kirlothenin finished his business with the banker quickly and then took off on his flying carpet. He only had one day before Jelune is released to come after him again. His mind returned to the news the hunter had provided. She was pregnant.

**...**

Nadine Cohan looked through narrow eyes at the night elf in front of her. "What do you mean she's disappeared?"

"I had planned to run into her after her druid lessons were over, but she and her instructor were not where I had expected them to be. After awhile, I found the instructor back at his position helping a different druid. She wasn't in the shop and her brother was nowhere to be seen. It seems they had left Darnassus quickly."

The human was about to say something when one of her aides entered to tell her a message just arrived. She took the parchment and read it, frowning. "The mage has disappeared as well." This did not bode well. She did not believe this to be coincidence. Could the mage be in process of telling the druid what he had found and delivered? Perhaps it was wrong not to have killed the mage after his delivery. "Find them!"

Thorion Nightblade nodded then hesitated. "And when they're found?"

She was silent as she considered her options. "Bring them for questioning." It was better to make sure nothing has been leaked. After the rogue left, she turned to go on her own mission. She had better let Doyle know.

**...**

She was in there somewhere. Kirlothenin stood on a barren mountain peak across the bay from Theramore Isle. The same warning that let him know the mind block had been broken, also had a sort of homing beacon so that he could find her quickly. He had been able to sneak close enough to determine that Ileeya was somewhere in the chapel building. But he didn't want to enter Theramore just yet. This was going to take some finesse. Getting past the guards was tricky enough. Getting around the mages was even trickier. He hadn't had to worry about the mages in Darnassus. If they had detected magic, they may have assumed it was just another Highborne, or a young recruit practicing their skills.

For most mages in Theramore, the same situation could be said. However, there was one mage even he didn't want to come up against. Proudmoore. For this reason, he decided to wait until most citizens in Theramore were asleep. Of course the guard would still be on patrol, but it would minimize the risk. Plus, Proudmoore should be asleep as well. Another advantage is that they hopefully were not expecting him.

The moon had risen and Theramore was for the most part quiet. He made himself invisible and flew into the city, landing near the chapel. Keeping alert for any indication that he had been discovered, he entered the building. The main sanctuary of the chapel was open and had a welcoming feel to it. There were benches to the sides where people could sit and meditate, but the benches were empty now. One priest stood near the pulpit, reading some parchments. Kirlothenin quietly made his way around the edges of the chapel to a door leading to some side rooms. He assumed, as with many chapels, that these served as a sort of medical facility for those the priests could not instantly heal.

There was a short hallway that turned into another hallway running parallel to it. Kirlothenin slowly made his way forward, then heard soft footsteps. He stopped and ducked into an empty room as the priestess passed by. She stopped and tilted her head for a moment, then moved on. Letting out a breath, he continued on pausing at the intersection of the hallways. He waited only long enough to sense which direction to go. He turned left, going about halfway down the hall when he stopped in front of a door. Slowly, he turned the knob and pushed the door open. He didn't enter right away. Instead, he waited to see if there was any sort of guard in the room.

A minute later, he cautiously stepped into the room. Ileeya lay unconscious on a bed to the right. To the left a night elf priestess slept on a cot. It seemed too easy. Kirlothenin glanced around the room. There was something not right, but he couldn't pinpoint it. He didn't have time. He had to take the risk. He cancelled his invisibility spell and knelt next to Ileeya's bed. Putting his hands on each side of her temples he began his spell to fix the mind block. As he did so, he cursed silently. There was some damage to her memory. He wouldn't be able to fix it all. It shouldn't matter, though. He didn't want her to recall those memories anyhow.

He finished but lingered in her mind a moment, sending an impulsive thought to her subconscious. He then stood up, glancing down to her midsection. Pregnant.

"Are you done?"

Kirlothenin snapped around to see a high elf come out of her own invisibility spell.

She watched him calmly with sapphire blue eyes. "I am going to assume you fixed her."

Kirlothenin hesitated a moment before nodding once. His eyes glanced towards the door she stood by. He muttered his teleportation spell, but it didn't work! Another silent curse. Wards! But they must only prevent teleportation, not other magic or else he wouldn't have been able to fix the mind block, nor she be invisible. The high elf's voice woke the priestess sleeping behind her. Now he had two to deal with. The high elf gave a slight smile. "Lady Proudmoore has some questions for you, Kirlothenin. I'd suggest coming along quietly."

The blood elf was not without his own tricks. "I will, if you catch me." A quickly muttered spell and three clones appeared. They ran around so as to confuse the two elves as to which was a clone and which was Kirlothenin. At his mental direction, one clone took off for the door. The high elf went after it. As soon as she grabbed it, it had disappeared. This was only a couple of seconds distraction, but it was enough for Kirlothenin to escape out of the room. He ran down the hall and around the corner, stopping quickly to cast his teleportation spell, taking the chance there were no wards in the halls.

Ysuria chased after the mage and made it around the corner just as he disappeared. Not put off by this, she reached out with her own magic to trace the quickly fading lines of the teleportation spell. It was a very risky move to teleport using the traces of another mage's spell. One would not know where they were going. Still, she took the chance and teleported following his line.

"Hold!"

Ysuria blinked and looked around. She was in a camp full of Ogres and orcs. Kirlothenin stood just on the other side of two large ogres who were slowly coming to the realization that they had an intruder. It was Kirlothenin who had spoken in orcish. "Let her go. I need her to take a message back." The ogres had started towards the high elf, but stopped, glaring at the blood elf. They didn't have to answer to him. They had their own leader. Draz'Zilb came out of the inn that he called home. "You heard him." The ogre guards backed off as Kirlothenin looked at Ysuria. "Return to Theramore, high elf. Ileeya should be awake by now." He paused and looked away, but still spoke to her. "Tell her she has nothing to fear from me... with one exception." At this his eyes bore into hers. "She is _not_ to terminate the pregnancy."

Before Ysuria cast her spell to return, she felt she had to ask one question, though she probably already knew the answer. "Are you the father?"

Kirlothenin turned and began to walk away. His voice came over his shoulder, quiet, but clear. "Yes."

**...**

Ileeya opened her eyes to see Tamlia looking at her with concern. "What happened?" She tried to sit up but felt a small dizzy spell. After pausing to let it pass, she sat up fully.

"You've been out for most of the day. It's now the middle of the night."

"What?" Ileeya glanced around and found the window. The moon shone through some thin clouds.

"When Lady Proudmoore tried to remove the mind block, she triggered a trap that caused you to be unconscious. We couldn't wake you, so we put you in here until we could figure out what to do."

Ileeya recalled the events leading up to now, including a new memory she didn't have before. It was just a few seconds long but she recognized Kirlothenin leaning in to kiss her, but whispering something under his breath as he did so. _N'lar._ She didn't know the word. She assumed it was Thalassian. The image gave her some foothold into believing her pregnancy to be real, rather than some sort of shadowy thought that it was happening to someone else.

As the realization hit home, she slowly felt her eyes water. An uneasy tension began to build inside her. She felt her breathing grow a little faster as one of the broiling emotions within her began to surge forward. With great difficulty, she pushed down the feelings of anger, afraid of lashing out. But the she couldn't hold all of her emotions back. Tears still streamed down her face as humiliation and mortification broke through her barrier. Seeing the tears, Tamlia wrapped her arms around Ileeya and just held her until the woman calmed down. Only after Ileeya had cried herself out did Tamlia use the Light to soothe her.

They sat together on the edge of the bed as Ileeya pulled back, having once more grabbed a firm hold on her emotions. But she was now tired from the onslaught of the feelings. "Maybe it would have been better had this trap not worn off." She stared into her hands that were resting in her lap.

Tamlia hesitated before responding. "It, uh... didn't wear off." She glanced at the open door that both mages had disappeared through, unsure if either was coming back or not. She didn't recall his name. "_He_ came and, um, fixed you." The blood seemed to drain from the druid's face.

"He was here?"

The young priestess nodded her head. "Ysuria chased after him right before you woke up."

Ileeya's eyes grew frightened as she looked at the door, once again feeling herself grow tense and struggling to keep herself in check. Tamlia's arm went around her shoulders once more.

"Ileeya?" She jumped as the voice startled her. Looking up, she saw Ysuria standing there.

"Is he gone?"

The high elf nodded. "I need to ask you something." Ileeya said nothing, but continued to look at her. Ysuria took this as permission to continue. "What are you going to do about the pregnancy?" There was a slight look of confusion on Ileeya's face so Ysuria clarified her question. "Are you going to keep the baby? Or do you want to terminate it?"

Ileeya hadn't even thought about that possibility. As a druid as well as one who loves nature and life, she personally found the termination of pregnancies to be detestable. But she also never thought she would be in the position of having to consider the possibility of terminating her own. For now, her only reply to Ysuria's question was a shrug of her shoulders.

Ileeya caught Ysuria's glance at Tamlia and she began to suspect there was something more. "Why?" The high elf studied her for a moment before deciding to tell her. "I followed him and was almost caught by some ogres. But he had them let me go. He told me to give you a message." Again she hesitated as she saw a look of dread cross Ileeya's face. "He said to tell you that you had nothing to fear from him but there was an exception. He then said that you are not to terminate the pregnancy."

Ileeya told them she wanted to be alone. Tamlia retreated to her cot, refusing to leave her charge alone, but giving her her space. Before Ysuria left, she looked at Ileeya and told her, "I asked him if he was the father." Ileeya looked up silently. "He said yes."

Ileeya didn't bother laying back down. She was not going to get anymore sleep for the rest of the night.

**...**

Three days had passed. Jelune had returned as soon as he had been released, looking for Ileeya. He was relieved to find her awake...and still there. When he heard how Ysuria had chased Kirlothenin away, he gave the high elf a nod of approval and wished he could have been there. Ileeya remained quiet, keeping her thoughts to herself. She slept little and on the third night, impulsively decided to get some fresh air. She slipped quietly out of her room so that Tamlia would not awaken. Since she had awoken from Kirlothenin's mind trap, she was moved to a room in the inn. Jelune slept in the room next to hers and she was quiet as she passed his door. The main part of the inn was quiet as the bar had been shut down for the night.

Stepping out into the fresh air, she started walking, not sure where she was going. But the night air felt cool. The clouds hid the moon tonight and she wondered if it was going to rain soon. Her feet seemed to have a mind of their own as she found herself by the gate that lead into Dustwallow Marsh. The two guards at the gate were asleep at their posts. Oddly enough, she didn't think anything of this as her feet lead her across the short bridge and into the marsh. She turned right and kept moving past a graveyard and onto Dreadmurk Shore. There was a campfire on the shore close to a couple palm trees. There, she stopped, staring at the fire.

"Hello Ileeya."

She seemed to snap out of a daze and blinked in confusion. Why was she out here? She was vaguely aware of walking here on her own, but that just wasn't like her to do that. Ileeya looked around and froze when she saw Kirlothenin standing just out of the immediate light of the campfire. Anger, fear, hatred all surged forth as she realized that he had done something to her to make her come out here. This was no accidental meeting.

She threw a hateful glare at him before turning sharply. She began to walk away when she felt a hand grab her elbow. With strength bolstered by her anger, she whipped around, freeing herself of his grasp and slapping him hard on the face. "DON'T Touch Me!" Her voice was venomous as he stepped back, his own face a hard mask.

"How _dare_ you! How dare you come here and act like you have ANY right to touch me! Haven't you had enough of your little games? I don't know what game it is you're playing now, but I won't be a part of it! I don't care if you kill me. I've had enough!" She turned her back to him and began to march off again.

He grabbed her arm again, this time in a stronger hold. "We need to talk-"

She could barely concentrate enough through her broiling emotions but was able to cast her spell to grow thorns from her skin, forcing him to let go. "I have nothing to say to you!"

He retaliated with his frost nova spell, freezing her feet to the ground. "Nonetheless, you're not going anywhere until we talk." His voice had a hard edge to it.

Frustration added to her anger and she struck out with her fist, making contact with his jaw. He reached up with one hand, rubbing his jaw and stepped back just out of her reach. Ileeya fully expected him to retaliate, and it suddenly occurred to her that he could repeat his actions of before. She struggled to free her feet, in the process getting off balance and falling on her rear end. She fearfully glanced up at him to see what he was going to do.

Kirlothenin watched her with guarded eyes, and saw the hatred and fear in her face. He was bound and determined to talk to her. He had no desire to keep her prisoner again. But he would do whatever it took until he could get her to talk to him. He stepped back away from her and knelt down so that he was no longer towering over her. By lowering himself, he gave the subtle hint that they were on equal ground here. "I'm not playing games, Ileeya." He drew a random shape in the sand with a stick, not looking at her. "We need to talk about your pregnancy." He risked a glance at her face.

Ileeya felt herself start to become overwhelmed as her emotions battled for top spot. Anger, hatred, fear, confusion all crossed her face and she struggled to get hold of them. She wanted to run away. She wanted to get away from this elf. She knew she couldn't. In desperation, she closed her eyes, feeling tears squeeze out of them, but not caring. "Please just leave me alone!"

"I can't do that just yet." He watched her curl up into a ball and lay her forehead on her arms, shivering. He canceled the frost spell, but didn't move. He could cast it again if he needed to. Apparently, she knew it too, and didn't attempt to walk away again. Yet neither did she look up to talk to him. Kirlothenin sighed and began what he needed to say. "I didn't mean for this to happen." He paused, trying to gauge her reactions. "It was... an accident."

"An _accident_?" Her head snapped up. "Breaking a dish is an accident! Bumping into someone is an accident!" Her silver eyes flared as they turned on him. "What you did to me was _no_ accident!"

"If you let me explain-"

"What is there to explain? _'Whoops? I accidentally forced myself on you, sorry about that. Oh here, let me erase that little bit from your memory,'_" she mocked.

Again he fell silent, enduring her rightful anger. When she spoke no more, he tried again. "I was trying to help you when I blocked that memory."

Ileeya was tired of yelling now. She only threw him a glare in disbelief then looked away. She couldn't stand the sight of him now.

"I blocked your memory because you didn't deserve what I did to you."

"YOU'RE DAMN RIGHT!" She grabbed a fist full of sand and threw it at him, not wanting to get close to him to punch him again. She buried her face in her hands, feeling a headache coming on. Tears, once more, fell from her eyes. "What do you want from me?" The anger had retreated and now her voice was just full of despair.

"I just want to talk."

"Why?" She wanted to tell him that she didn't want to talk to him, but knew by now that he wouldn't accept that response.

"There are some things that need to be settled."

"Settled? What do you want? Absolution?" She finally looked up but only to sneer at him.

"No. I just-" he sighed. "Don't terminate the pregnancy. Promise me this."

Her eyes narrowed with distrust. "Why?"

He stood again walking over to the campfire and staring into it feeling irritated. "Because I want the baby. If you promise not to terminate, after tonight you'll only see me one more time, and that will be when I come to take my son or daughter to live with me."

"So I'm a baby factory? Is that it?"

He let out a curse and turned around. "NO! I told you it was an accident! I didn't mean for it to happen!"

"Oh, I forgot! Wait...YOU should know that since you're the one who _made_ me forget!"

He took a couple of angry steps towards her. "Do you _really_ want to remember the details of that night? Really?"

She automatically backed up on her hands and feet when he approached, but by this time her anger had won top spot of her emotional ladder. She would say anything just to be contrary. "Yes!"

This made him pause as he didn't expect this to be her answer. "The pathways to those memories have been damaged. I cannot fix it for you." His voice was starting to calm as he tried to check his temper.

"Then why did you bother asking?" He was standing over her now and she didn't like that. Ileeya stood up, wiping sand off herself and circling around to be closer to the warm fire and farther away from him, never turning her back on him as she did so.

"I- " He took in a deep breath and let it out as he watched her move. "I can give you my own memories...if it _really_ is that important to you."

She remained silent as this revelation was unexpected. She finally had the chance to learn what exactly had happened that night and she is hesitating. He admitted to taking advantage of her. No, he said it was an accident. How can it be an accident? She considered letting him do this. But then again, she was sure he magically manipulated her to get her to come here to this beach. "How can I know that what you show me is the truth and not something that is part of one of your conniving plans?"

"What possible reason would I have to lie to you now? I have already admitted to the act."

"No you haven't! You admitted to an accident! You haven't taken any responsibility for what you did!" Despite the warmth of the fire, she wrapped her arms around herself as she stared into the fire. Oh how she wanted to run away right now.

Kirlothenin watched her as he went over in his mind the events of that night. He had hated himself for what he had done. He had thought at the time that he hadn't cared about anything, including what he did to others. But he had found out that he was wrong. He found he still had certain standards for himself. And this was partly what accelerated his hidden desire for his own death. Still, he hadn't wanted to admit even to himself what he had done. But now she was forcing him to do just that.

He turned away as he struggled to find the right words to say to explain that night. He let out a slow breath before speaking quietly. "Very well. It _started off_ as an accident. I could have stopped it, but I didn't." He looked at her again, anger in his eyes. "Is that what you want to hear?"

She remained silent. No. She didn't want to hear it. She didn't want to be here talking to him. But she knew he wouldn't let her leave until he had had his say. He wanted the baby. Why? She couldn't fathom him being a father. Then a thought occurred to her. "I won't have this baby only to have you sell it off."

Kirlothenin began to get dizzy from her changing the direction of this conversation so fast. "Kaldorei, you are wrong with that thinking, so stop it right now! I would never sell off my own child!"

At this, she looked up at him finally, seeing the disgust in his eyes. She had to admit that she believed him. "I don't understand why in the world you would want this baby, and why me? If you're so adamant about having a baby, why not get together with someone of your own kind?"

"I can't explain why, Ileeya. I don't know myself. You're here now, pregnant with my child. Now. And I want... I _need_ that child."

"Do you really think I care what you need after all that you've done to me?" She was tired and drained now. Her voice no longer held it's venomous tone. Ileeya sat down and leaned back against a tree trunk.

Silence remained between them for a number of minutes before he knelt down near her. "I have no desire to bring you anymore pain, Ileeya. I know that apologizing for what I did to you won't help, but I still do so." He saw a silent tear escape her closed eyes. Part of him wanted to just leave her alone and forget this. But he knew he couldn't. He had no choice. He would do anything to bring that child into this world. And if that meant holding her against her will until that came to pass, he would. But he didn't want that. It would be so much simpler to get her to promise not to terminate, than it would be to force her into captivity once more. And oddly enough, he trusted her to keep her promise if she made it.

"My offer still stands, if that will help you decide. I will show you my own memories of that night. But only if that is what you want. It must be your choice." He paused when she glared at him, knowing she silently mocked him for giving her a choice, _now_. "I don't want to share, Ileeya. It would only bring you more pain. But, perhaps it will also bring you more understanding." He sat back to let her decide.

Slowly, Ileeya nodded her head. She didn't want him near her or have any part of him inside her head. But... she couldn't help but agree that perhaps she would better understand what was going on if she could only know what had happened that night, whichever night it was.

He reached out his hands to either side of her head, hesitating as she flinched away from his touch. "I need to touch you to do this. Do you change your mind?"

She gave him an unsure look, but shook her head and his fingers touched her temples.

The first thing she saw was the face of an ogre. This was _not_ what she expected. He was talking to Kirlothenin. "It good brew. Has kick. Give good sleep." The scene faded.

A new one came forward. He had eaten some dry bread and washed it down with the Gok Brew and she saw herself drink some of it as well. It was awkward seeing herself through someone else's eyes. The scene faded.

She saw a high elf with black hair. This memory seemed a little fuzzy. What's that voice? _...Have you heard the news?..._ She realized she was seeing a dream. No, a nightmare. From what she could tell, the high elf had told him they were going to have a baby and left to prepare. Then other images came forward and left all the time the voice was saying over and over again, _"...Have you heard the news?..._" She saw him go through motions of fighting with other blood elves and finally returning to Azeroth depressed and hating life. She saw him decide that he didn't care about anything anymore and get himself involved in what looked like mercenary work. Then he thought he saw the high elf again and started kissing her and holding her.

The dream sequence ended without warning as he woke up and she suddenly saw her own face, eyes closed and tears streaming down her face. The image faded to black. Ileeya thought it was over, but another image entered her mind. This time she saw herself backed into a corner, half-dressed and avoiding looking at him. "I was dreaming." It was Kirlothenin speaking, though she couldn't see him. Probably because she was seeing through his eyes. "I thought you were..." He muttered a curse. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean for this to happen." She saw her image get closer as Kirlothenin had gotten up to move over to her. "You don't deserve this." She saw his hands come forward and touch her temples. "Forget. Forget what happened and you won't have to live through this memory for the rest of your life. Like I have to." The image faded and she was once more looking at present-time Kirlothenin.

"I spared you the memory of the actual deed. You do not need that." He backed away from her, giving her some space. "I thought you were my wife, until I awoke from the alcohol induced dream." His voice was quiet, but raw. "I should have walked away. But I didn't. I was hurting from the memories of her death and that of our unborn child. And I was angry to find myself kissing you instead of N'Lar. I wasn't myself. It's no excuse. It's just..." He had to pause at the renewal of painful emotions he had kept locked away for so long. "I was still also feeling...aroused from the memories of her. You were there already, so I finished what my dream had started." He sat with his arms on his knees, his head hung down. "I truly am sorry for losing control of myself." His voice was but a whisper.

Silence reigned between them for the next ten minutes. Ileeya was so tired now. She hadn't the energy to even be angry anymore, though she knew she still was deep down. She mulled over what she had seen and what he had said. Slowly, she spoke her observations. "You need this child because you were thinking of her..of N'Lar, when it was created." She looked at him. "It's not her child. It's mine. This baby won't replace the one you lost."

He raised his head, dropping all pretenses and barriers. He looked vulnerable to her now. "It's not just that, Ileeya. I've been taking a slow spiral towards death ever since N'Lar's death. I thought I didn't care about anything except myself. But I was wrong. I didn't even care about myself. But this baby is a second chance for me. To have what N'lar almost gave me. This baby is my lifeline right now. A reason to live. And it's innocent. What I did may have been wrong, but I beg of you, don't punish this baby for it. Please. Tell me you won't terminate this pregnancy."

Ileeya swallowed. She couldn't deny that truth. The baby was innocent of any wrong doings. "I won't. I promise."

A look of relief crossed his face. "I will come for the baby after it is born and you'll never see us again. I made a promise to leave you alone. I intended to do that until...this."

A new thought suddenly came to Ileeya's mind. "What if...What if I grow attached to the baby? What if I didn't want to let it go?"

Kirlothenin froze. This hadn't occurred to him. He thought it over then said slowly. "I won't leave the baby. You can come with me of your own free will if you desire. But I will not take you prisoner again." He looked her in the eyes to make sure she understood what he said next. "But I will not allow you to keep it from me." He muttered a spell under his breath and a portal opened up. "You have time to think it over."

Ileeya stood, seeing the portal opened up to the entrance to Theramore. She started to step through the portal when he held out a hand to stop her. She looked at him warily as he said, "Do not tell anyone of our meeting tonight." She nodded only because she feared he wouldn't let her pass unless she agreed. Then without a word she stepped through the portal to return to Theramore.


	15. Chapter 15

Firodren bid his student farewell and turned to the customer who had been patiently waiting. "What can I help you with today?"

The night elf's blue, shoulder-length hair was partly pulled back into a ponytail. He gave the herbalist a smile. "Yes, well, maybe. You see, I met a young druid on the Warrior's Terrace a few months ago and have seen her there ever since up until a few days ago. She had mentioned working here, so I thought I'd visit her to make sure she was okay. But I see she isn't here?"

Firodren shook his head. "I'm afraid she's gone on extended leave."

Thorion put on a look of disappointment. "Ah. Perhaps you can tell me when she gets back so that I may look for her again?"

"I'm sorry. I cannot say when she'll return. The leave is open-ended. Please excuse me." Firodren took advantage of the new customers entering to avoid answering the questions about Ileeya.

Thorion kept the smile plastered on his face as he thought,_ Just one quick toss of the dagger, old elf_... He allowed himself the imagery of the deed before leaving the shop. Perhaps the druid trainer would be more informative.

**...**

The next day, Ileeya debated whether or not to tell anyone she had seen Kirlothenin. She had gotten very little sleep, falling into slumber only when exhaustion forced her to. His memories played over and over in her mind as she tried to make sense of it all. When Jelune awoke, she sat with him at a table downstairs. "Jelune, I've...decided to have the baby."

Her foster brother looked at her as though she were crazy. "Just because he told you not to terminate it? Ilee, he has no control over what you do or don't do!"

Ileeya shook her head. "No. It's not because of that. What he did to me was wrong, but the baby had done no wrong."

"And what are you going to do with it after it's born? Raise it yourself? Give it out for adoption?"

"I- " She hesitated. "I don't know." This was true. She hadn't made up her mind in that regard. "Jelune. I want to stay here for the duration of the pregnancy. You can return home if you want."

Jelune looked at her as though she were crazy. "As long as you're here, I'm here, Ileeya... No matter how crazy I think you've become."

Ileeya gave him a weak smile and then a big hug.

Coming down the stairs, Tamlia saw the two. "Well, you two seem to be in good spirits."

Ileeya gave her a smile. "I was just telling Jelune that I had decided to stay here until the baby was born. I feel more comfortable here without having everyone I know come into the shop back home and..." She looked down, studying her hands. "...wonder about my pregnancy."

"So you're keeping it?"

Ileeya nodded and Tamlia watched her for a moment. "Then I guess I'd better send word home to ask for some things. I guess this trip is going to be longer than expected."

Unnoticed by her, Jelune suddenly smiled. But Ileeya frowned. "Oh, Tamlia. You don't have to stay with me. I'm sure you have other duties back home."

"My duties are what my high priestess gives me. And she said to stay with you for the duration. The duration has just become longer than expected is all."

**...**

He hadn't had a chance to talk to the druid trainer. There was no opportunity between him meeting with his students and other interruptions to talk to him alone. Thorion could only wait and bide his time. He watched a Highborne approach Denatharion. A moment later, the druid excused himself from his student and the two walked away to a more secluded spot. The rogue narrowed his eyes. The Highborne was one he had seen in the herbalists shop. This could be interesting. He ghosted himself and silently made his way unnoticed to a spot near the two.

"-asked me to let you know she will not be continuing her studies for a short duration."

The druid put a hand to his chin. "She's keeping it." It was more of a statement than a question.

"You're not surprised?"

"Not really. I'll admit, there was some doubt. But her being a druid, especially of the restorative path, she would have been more inclined to see it through rather than terminate."

"We think he may be back to get the baby. He apparently wanted her to keep it. Took the risk in entering Theramore to awaken her. Though Ysuria chased him off, he gave her a message to tell Ileeya not to terminate the pregnancy."

The druid raised one long green eyebrow. "Interesting. There's more to this sin'dorei than we may realize, Mehlumis."

"That's what Ysuria said. Anyhow, I won't keep you from your student any longer."

"I'll send some exercises she can practice during her stay there. Let her know she can continue her studies once she returns if she still has the desire to do so." Mehlumis nodded and walked away.

Thorion smiled. He now not only knew where she was, but he knew how to get Kirlothenin as well.

**...**

_Five Months Later_...

Ileeya watered the herbs within the tray on the back porch of the house. She and Jelune had decided they didn't want to stay in the inn for a long period of time and so had rented the house. The house had three bedrooms on the top floor and the bottom floor was one great room which included the kitchen area, dining table and reception section. The laundry and bathing room was downstairs as well. Ileeya had immediately tilled half of the backyard to be used as a vegetable garden and used part of the back porch for an herb garden.

To help pay the rent, Ileeya helped a local herbalist with his children while he worked. She tutored them on various subjects which they seemed to be much more interested in with her teaching them than if their human father had tried. They asked her lots of questions about Teldrassil and thought it was great that she normally lived at the top of a huge tree. Ileeya also sold some of her herbs at the shop. Jelune hunted in the woods and sold the leather he returned with along with various other things. Tamlia, when she was not checking on Ileeya, volunteered her time at the chapel.

The baby and Kirlothenin were never far from Ileeya's mind. In the beginning, anytime she thought of the blood elf, her anger would return. Thus, she would feel the need to meditate so she could think more clearly. But slowly and surely she began to think more rationally about the whole situation. She knew she was growing attached to the baby, as many mothers do, though she also tried to temper those feelings.

One thing she focused on was what would be best for the baby. What would happen if Kirlothenin went off with the baby? All she could think of was the baby traveling all over the place while the blood elf did his 'jobs'. And where would the baby stay? She imagined him kidnapping some other victim while holding the baby and shook her head. Surely he wouldn't do that...would he? Her mind could imagine all kinds of dangerous scenarios. She had to remind herself that he was looking for a second chance with the baby. Did that mean that he may even quit his bounty hunter ways?

And what kind of life would he prepare for the child? What would he teach him or her? She frowned at the thought of the baby not learning about Elune, or Cenarius. What would life be like in Silvermoon City if that's where he settled down..._if_ he settled down? What would the infant look like? How would others treat the child if it's mixed race? Did he even think of any of this?

Her mind moved on to herself. When it came down to it, would she be able to detach herself from the baby? She knew she shouldn't get attached. But the natural reactions of motherhood were overcoming her attempts at remaining neutral. So, what if she did the unthinkable? It was hard to think about going with him without thoughts of hitting him just about every day. She could see her life with him would be full of sarcastic remarks and bitterness. This wouldn't be good for her or the baby.

So, the only conclusion she kept coming to was to keep the baby. She knew Kirlothenin would not accept this. And despite her growing attachment to the baby, it wasn't her favorite option...but it was the best for the baby. These thoughts continued to go over and over in her mind until about a month ago, when Ileeya had finally made up her mind. From that point forward, her mind was engaged on how to make her idea become reality. Since then, Jelune often left on trips to Darnassus and other places, almost always muttering something about crazy sisters.

**...**

She wasn't sure why she woke up. It was the middle of the night and there were no sounds. She looked around the room and saw no intruders. With a sigh, she climbed out of bed and waddled downstairs to get a cup of water from the fresh water jug. Her swollen belly made it hard to walk. Jelune took to calling her Ducky, which she chided him for. In the middle of a drink, she suddenly realized what had awoken her. The pain in her midsection came again and she had to put the cup down and breathe through the pain. It slowly went away. Should she get Tamlia? No. She'll let the priestess sleep a little longer. Ileeya sat downstairs as she counted the time between the labor pains. When they started coming faster, she decided to go upstairs and wake the priestess.

She started up the stairs, but found it too difficult to climb during the labor pain. "Tamlia!" She waited a moment. "Jelune!" Footsteps pounding on the floor above moved past the stairs to her room. "Down here, Je- ooh!" A labor pain hit right then. The pounding came back and she saw Jelune in his bare feet and simple lounging pants coming down the stairs, bow in hand. "I don't...need...that!" She said through clinched teeth, trying to breathe through the pain. She said a simple rejuvenation spell. It helped some, but not alot. "Get Tam." She stopped him. "Wait! Help me upstairs first." He had already turned upstairs and had to turn around again to go back downstairs to help her back up the stairs.

**...**

"Okay, push again." Ileeya did as she was told. Tamlia did a wonderful job at keeping her calm as well as taking away some of the pain with her healing light. Her voice was firm but soothing as she directed the druid in the birthing process. A sudden release and the baby was out. Tamlia wrapped the infant in a warm towel that she had ordered Jelune to bring. She then stepped over to Ileeya's side and gave the infant to her. Ileeya's maternal instincts took over and she positioned the baby to nurse. It was a girl.

**...**

He had been checking the last couple of weeks to see if she had the baby yet. By now, it was almost routine to make himself invisible, dash in towards the house and glance in the window. If he saw no signs of the baby being born, he would quickly leave. His only regret was that he could not be there to welcome the infant into this world.

Ever since she had agreed to continue with the pregnancy, the dark hole of his world began to get brighter. He had something to look forward to. Kirlothenin headed in the direction of Theramore, moving slowly as his thoughts lingered on the past. He still wished for N'lar to come back to him. But something in him seemed to have changed. Instead of a painful memory of a love lost forever, he recalled her face with a simple acceptance. Now that he allowed himself to think of her, he knew she would have been disappointed in how his life had turned out after her death.

He, himself, had never thought he would become a mercenary and bounty hunter when he was younger. He was always more interested in his mage studies and alchemy. There is going to be a little one to look after now. He would start over. Perhaps start his own shop like N'lar and he had planned. A short tightness in his chest told him he was still not quite ready to think on everything from his past. Instead, he focused on where he was going.

It had taken him a couple of days to find them after he had discovered they were no longer in the Theramore inn. At first he had thought they had returned to Darnassus, but he had stayed to look for them here first. It didn't take too long. He saw the vegetable garden that was succeeding quite well in this marshy environment whereas any other gardens were struggling. The herb garden on the back porch helped clue him in as well. A quick look in the window confirmed that he had found them.

He arrived at the house after they were all supposedly asleep, hovering on his flying carpet. The invisibility spell kept him safe as he gazed into the window of Ileeya's bedroom. She was awake. Her midsection was no longer swollen with pregnancy, and she held something in her arms. The baby had been born! Kirlothenin felt his heart skip a beat at the sight of his child. He allowed himself a moment to watch her sit down with the infant before focusing on the task he will need to do next. He mentally reached out around the house searching for wards. That high elf surprised him once. He won't be caught off guard now.

A little surprised, he found no wards. He checked again, just to be sure. No wards. He then glanced around the outside of the house. No guards. It felt too easy. Did she really make it that simple for him? Perhaps she was ready to be rid of the baby and himself once and for all. Or... he recalled her concern about becoming attached to the infant. He looked through the window at the way she was holding the baby. Yes, there was definitely the look of a caring mother on her face. Did that mean she would come with him, willingly? The thought had crossed his mind numerous times in the last few months. But he kept pushing them away. He didn't really think she would go with him. Not after the way he had treated her.

This left only one other option in his mind. She wasn't going to let the baby go. Kirlothenin frowned. He was going to have to hurt her once again, despite his resolve not to do so. But the baby meant more to him than she...did. A wave of realization hit him at that last thought. _Did_ she mean something to him? He shook his head. She was the mother of his child. That has something to do with it. Nothing more. He refused to think any more on that. It was time to take his baby and leave.

Kirlothenin moved to the lower part of the house. The door was locked. He pulled out a small vial from his satchel and poured a tiny bit onto the knob. A few minutes later, the lock had been eaten away by the acidic nature of the liquid. He quietly opened the door and looked around the humble home before entering. He remained invisible just in case the priestess or hunter were up. Slowly he made his way up the stairs and to Ileeya's bedroom door. Ever so slowly, he turned the knob. The door opened a crack and he glanced inside. He could see her standing up with the sleeping baby. She hadn't noticed the door open.

The mage fully entered the room, shutting the door soundlessly. He stepped closer, his eyes on the little bundle in her arms. "Is it a boy or girl?" His voice was a whisper, and somewhere in the back of his mind he noted that Ileeya had jumped a little at the sound of his voice. He then remembered he was still invisible and cancelled the spell. There was a mix of uncertainty, fear, and...resolve? on her face.

"A girl." Ileeya's heart began to pound and she tried to force herself to stay calm, though it was hard. She knew he was going to come for the baby and thought she was ready for him. She found herself to be quite nervous now that he was here, though. He was watching her now with suspicion. Did he somehow know what she had planned?

"I'll take my daughter now." His voice was full of determination. She had no doubt he'd do whatever he would need to in order not to be separated from his daughter. Ileeya hesitated long enough to reach into a pocket, pulling something out. Her hand was hidden by the draping blankets surrounding the infant. She then approached him reaching out to hand him her baby. She was sure he could hear the pounding of her heart in her throat. As he reached and carefully took the infant, she swiftly placed the object on his wrist and locked it. She stepped back quickly as a look of surprise crossed his face for a moment, then a glare in her direction.

"Take it off! Now!" His voice rumbled as he glanced at his wrist. It was a metal band with a simple jewel of light blue color. He recognized the jewel immediately. It was the kind that prevented magic from being performed by the one wearing it. Anger surged through him. He was partly angry at himself for allowing himself to be duped by her, and partly angry at her for attempting to trap him. When she shook her head, he moved threateningly in her direction and stopped only when she exclaimed, "Don't hurt Adorei!"

Adorei? He looked down at the infant in his arms. That's what she named her? Kirlothenin looked back at Ileeya. "This isn't going to stop me from leaving with my baby." He whirled around and out of the room. Marching down the stairs, he heard her following him silently and briefly wondered why she wasn't screaming or trying to pull him back. The mage held the sleeping infant in one hand and opened the back door. He continued walking across the backyard until he got to the border of the yard. He crossed the border, but his free arm with the wristband on it suddenly seemed to have it's own mind and swung back. It was like an invisible wall prevented his wrist and hand from crossing this imaginary line of the property border. He pulled and tugged until he saw Ileeya approach, a look of relief was on her face.

"I had it enchanted so that it cannot leave this property." Ileeya stayed just out of reach and watched him. "I couldn't let you take her into some unknown life of danger. And I knew you would come after me if I tried to keep her from you. So, I did the only thing I could think of that would be of some satisfaction to us all, but mostly what was best for Adorei. You will stay here with your daughter." She swallowed. "Under my supervision."

Kirlothenin watched her as she spoke. He knew he was caught. But the realization that she wasn't going to keep...Adorei...from him calmed him somewhat. He stepped back within the boundaries of the property and his arm was his to move again. "It seems that the tables have turned, kaldorei. I am your prisoner."


	16. Chapter 16

They entered the house and Ileeya moved easily in the darkened room towards the kitchen where she found a couple of candles. Lighting them, she paused to look at Kirlothenin. This was the first time he had gotten a good look at his daughter. She had a very pale violet hue to her skin. Her ears looked to be the shorter style of her father's. Her hair was pale blonde. He couldn't see her eyes since they were closed. A clinking sound grabbed his attention and he saw Ileeya take out a kitchen knife and put it on the counter in front of him. She eyed him with a little uncertainly, but a growing confidence behind that. "I realize magic is not the only way for you to get what you want." She glanced at the knife. "There are other means at your disposal. I think you're smart enough to figure this out, but I wanted to reiterate it for you. If you kill me or anyone else in this house, you _will _be caught and you'll _never_ see your daughter again."

Kirlothenin studied her face, then gave a nod. So, even though she had him trapped here, she was still afraid he'd hurt her. His anger had simmered down to irritation now. Slowly, he reached out with his free hand and pushed the knife back towards her. He watched her face show signs of relief as she put the knife back and moved to a small room on the other side of the great room. It was the laundry/bathing room. "For now, you'll have to make due sleeping in here. You _will not _bother Jelune or Tamlia. You _will not _touch me or come into my room upstairs. You will not go into their rooms, for that matter. If at any time, I feel I cannot trust you around us or Adorei, then you'll be taken to the local prison and you'll never see your daughter again."

He frowned at this. He didn't like her ordering him around. But a part of him understood her restrictions. This was definitely not what he had planned. His re-emerging conscious, however, told him it was what he deserved. So he only nodded to her listing of the 'rules'. It could be worse. She could turn him over to some authorities and be done with him. Instead she had opted to give him a chance to live in a home and be a father to his daughter. Adorei started to squirm and Ileeya took her to settle her back down.

Footsteps could be heard coming down the stairs. "Ilee? Is something wrong with-" Jelune froze on the lower steps of the stairs as he spotted Kirlothenin. His eyes glanced at the wristband and then back to the blood elf's face. A satisfied grin slowly grew on his face. Without a word, he walked up to Kirlothenin and solidly punched him in the face! Pain exploded in the mage's nose, the sharp crack telling him it was broken. Blood trickled down, but Jelune wasn't finished. Even though Kirlothenin had stumbled backwards, the hunter came over and hit him again and again. Kirlothenin tried to get his senses to stop spinning. His arms came up to block the punches and he kicked out his legs to get the hunter off balance. One foot hit his knee and the onslaught suddenly stopped as Jelune fell to the side grabbing his knee in pain. Ileeya watched this, unable to respond. She dare not try to go in and stop them while holding Adorei. And she could not root them apart if they were right next to each other.

Kirlothenin could barely see through one already swelling eye. Jelune was getting up again, ready to pounce on the mage when someone stepped in between the two. "Enough, Jelune!" It was the priestess. Apparently the ruckus of their fighting had awoken her and she had come downstairs to stop it. Tamlia looked over at Ileeya to make sure she and the baby were okay. They were standing a bit away, pale, but okay. Ileeya apparently hadn't taken into account what her brother would do to the mage.

Tamlia firmly pushed Jelune down to sit on the couch, giving him a calming touch as she did so. Once he was settled, she began to attend to Jelune's wounds. She would do nothing with Kirlothenin unless instructed to do so by Ileeya. The young druid seemed to recover and threw an angry look in Jelune's direction. "You promised you wouldn't try to kill him!"

"Yeah, and I didn't kill him. But, I said nothing about not beating him to a pulp."

With a sigh, Ileeya turned and walked to the stairs with Adorei. "Ileeya?" She turned and looked at Tamlia. "What about him?" Ileeya turned her silver eyes on the bloodied sin'dorei. She remained silent for a minute, then finally turned and walked back.

"Your duties do not cover what has become my responsibility, Tamlia." She then handed Adorei to Jelune while she said her own healing spells over Kirlothenin. She did not look at him except to see the spell complete it's work. She then picked up Adorei and headed back to the stairs, disappearing up to the second floor and her room. She set Adorei down in the crib beside the bed and lay down. But she didn't go back to sleep for the rest of the night.

Kirlothenin stood up and went into the small room that was designated as his sleeping space, and closed the door. Once alone, he leaned against the wall thinking over the evening. Slowly, he reached into his satchel and pulled out the small vial that held the acidic liquid in it. He glanced at the metal wristband then the vial. After a few more minutes of contemplation, he returned the vial to the satchel and hid it.

**...**

Jelune entered the mage tower with a skip to his step and a grin on his face. He stopped in front of Ysuria who returned his look with an unspoken question. "She caught him."

Ysuria's expression remained neutral. "Him?"

"That poor excuse of a living being, Kirlothenin. He's in our house and can't leave our property."

Ysuria put down the scroll she was reading. "I see. I think Lady Proudmoore may have some questions for him." She then turned and headed up the spiral staircase. Jelune started to stop her because he had wanted to send a message to his father and Mehlumis, then decided he'll just do it a little later. Instead he turned and headed back to the house as he didn't want to leave Ileeya alone with him for too long. He didn't notice the human in the corner watching him leave.

When he entered the house, Kirlothenin was holding the baby as Ileeya and Tamlia cooked up some eggs for breakfast. He knew Ileeya hadn't slept last night. He could see the bags under her eyes. He set the table for the breakfast and then watched Kirlothenin.

The blood elf ignored the hunter. Instead, he just held his daughter, watching her wake up, rubbing her eyes with her tiny hand. When she opened her eyes, he saw that they were the same shade of blue that his own eyes used to be. When the breakfast was ready, he easily shifted her to his left arm, unwilling to put her down to eat. When the meal was done, Adorei began to fuss. Ileeya stood and took her from Kirlothenin, and headed upstairs to nurse the baby. Without the baby to keep him occupied, the blood elf stood and began gathering the dishes.

Jelune and Tamlia glanced at each other in mild surprise when they saw the blood elf take the dishes to the sink and start washing them. As if reading their minds, Kirlothenin said, "I have nothing else to do. I may as well do my share of the work." Jelune only watched, trying to figure the blood elf out. Tamlia, however, stood and went upstairs to check on Ileeya.

She knocked on the door. "Ileeya?" She heard the druid tell her to enter and she did so. The infant was nursing and Tamlia whispered, knowing that infants often fell asleep after nursing. "I just wanted to let you know that now that the infant has been born and the father is...in custody... as well as around to help with your baby, my duty has been fulfilled. I plan to return to the temple tomorrow." She hesitated, then glanced at her again. "Unless you would rather I stay."

Ileeya gave her a smile. "You have been a wonderful friend, Tamlia. I can't thank you enough for all you have done. In my opinion, you've gone above and beyond the call of duty. I hope we shall remain friends."

Tamlia returned the smile. "We shall."

There was a knock at the front door and Tamlia excused herself to go downstairs to see who it was. Jelune had answered the door first only to find Jaina Proudmoore, Ysuria, and Broll Bearmantle at the door. Tamlia stopped, then immediately returned to Ileeya to let her know who it was.

Kirlothenin stopped drying the dishes when he saw who had come to the door. He had no doubt they were here for him. Upon entering all three quickly looked around and stopped when they saw him. There were some pleasantries said between Jelune and the others as Tamlia came downstairs asking them to kindly wait as Ileeya was indisposed for the moment. The blood elf decided to finish drying his dishes as he mentally prepared himself for an interrogation. Once he was done, he moved over to a chair to make himself comfortable, watching each of them.

Ileeya finally came down with the sleeping infant in her arms. "I'm sorry to keep you waiting, but I can't rush her." The trio gathered around to look at the infant for a few minutes then set into business.

"I have a few questions for your...guest." Jaina glanced over at Kirlothenin. Ileeya followed her gaze, wondering what she wanted to ask him. She stepped back to let her ask her questions.

Kirlothenin crossed his arms in front of his chest and waited. The leader of Theramore walked over to him, observing his casual, but still defiant look. "Do you know who I am?" She kept her voice cool and calm. At his nod, she continued. "Then you know that I have my own ways of extracting knowledge. I'd rather not resort to that."

"Then don't." He interrupted her. Uncrossing his arms, he sat a little straighter, looking her in the eyes. "I have no ties to anything governmental within Silvermoon City, nor the Horde. If it's tactical information you're after, then you may as well be talking to a rock."

Jaina's blue eyes studied him for a moment. "What were you after in Onyxia's lair?"

It was his turn to study her. He hadn't thought of that for a long time. Deals with clients were usually not to be talked about. Secrecy was important if one wanted a good reputation. But then again, he was no longer going to be in that business anymore.

"It's a simple question, Kirlothenin." Jaina prompted him.

"Unfortunately, the answer is not so simple," he replied as his mind went over that event. He quickly recalled the people he was in contact with. They had asked him to join an organization of some sort. So it wasn't just them. If that was the case, then if he told Proudmoore what he had retrieved for them, the organization could find out. If they found out, his life could be in danger...and by proxy, so could the lives of those who lived in this house...including his daughter. There was no reason for them to be monitoring him that he could think of. Still, he didn't want to put Adorei or Ileeya in danger. "I can't answer the question at this time."

Ysuria watched the blood elves eyes flicker to Ileeya and the infant and stopped Jaina from moving forward. "Perhaps you need some time to think it over." She ignored Jaina's questioning gaze. Kirlothenin shrugged his shoulders, but she detected a slight hint of relief. She motioned for Jaina to follow her as she moved over near the fireplace out of hearing of the others. "He's concerned about either his daughter, Ileeya, or both."

Jaina considered this for a moment. "I'm still going to need the information. The fact that he won't tell us straight out, plus this concern for others tells me that it was something others wanted, others who could potentially be powerful and a danger."

Ysuria crossed her arms in front of her as she glanced back at the blood elf. He was watching them with a guarded expression. "Lady Proudmoore, if you don't mind, I would like to be in charge of getting this information."

Jaina raised an eyebrow. Ysuria usually tended to not involve herself in situations like this. The high elf often preferred to keep her distance, observing from afar. Jaina trusted her insights because of these neutral observations. "If you think you'll get results. How long do you think you'll need?"

"I'll need some time..perhaps a week or so."

Jaina didn't like the length of time, but she had waited this long for answers. One more week shouldn't matter. "Very well."

Meanwhile, Broll Bearmantle took the opportunity to talk to Ileeya. "How are you doing in your druidic studies?"

Ileeya glanced down at Adorei. "They've kind of faltered for the time being." She quickly added, "But I hope to resume them as soon as I can. The archdruid looked at the infant. "Adorei. 'The Child'. Why this name, Ileeya?"

She glanced at Kirlothenin who had turned his head to watch them, listening to the conversation. "She is both kaldorei and sin'dorei; A child of both races. She will have a hard time as she grows because of her mixed heritage. But I would have her proud of who she is, no matter."

Broll glanced at the blood elf and noticed a slight smile of approval at what she had said. Broll smiled himself as he glanced back at her. "You'll make a fine druid one day, Ileeya. We try to judge each individual based on who they are, rather than where they came from. Although, I admit, there are always some who have let their own prejudices lead their thoughts instead." He then pulled her aside out of earshot of Kirlothenin and asked a more pressing question in his mind. "Now tell me. How are you doing...really?"

Ileeya didn't look at him as she had to keep her own emotions in check. "I'm... handling it."

Broll was silent for a moment as he observed her. "Perhaps. But why have you put yourself through all of this. You could have turned him over to Jaina and not have to see him again. Or you could have let him have Adorei and never seen him again, from what I've been told."

Ileeya kept her eyes on the sleeping infant. "Watch." She walked over to Kirlothenin and handed him Adorei. The blood elf took her willingly and carefully. She then walked back to Broll. "Look at him. Despite the fact Adorei was an unintentional side effect of..." She cleared her throat. "...well anyways, he's wanted the child and is trying to be a father to her. And he's not the...the monster he previously was."

"He could be putting on an act."

"That's a possibility. But I don't think so." She recalled their conversation months ago on the beach, and the memories he had shared. Along with those memories, he had opened up a part of himself to her. She didn't understand why he did this or what exactly had changed him. "As much as I'd rather not be around him, I found myself loving that baby and I couldn't bear to have her taken from me. Nor could I envision him doing the right thing for her. I mean, he wants to be a father to her, but...I don't know."

"I see now. You're protecting your child." Broll fell silent as his own memories of his child, now dead, came to him.

**...**

Now was the perfect time to send the message. The human had heard the hunter tell Ysuria about Kirlothenin. He had to wait until the coast was clear and no chance of being caught. He slipped away out of the tower and walked towards the docks. People were busy there and often didn't notice others walking around. He slipped around the wall surrounding Theramore and onto the rocks between the wall and the sea. He moved until he was a far enough distance from the docks so as he would hardly be seen. He then pulled out the scrying bowl and activated it. A few minutes later, Nadine's face appeared. "Report."

"The night elf has had the baby. And Kirlothenin is apparently in her custody. The hunter came in, talking of how his sister had captured the blood elf and that he couldn't leave their property."

"And Proudmoore?"

"She's there now along with Broll Bearmantle and a high elf. Most likely interrogating."

Nadine frowned. "If he knows what's good for him, he won't talk." They had already moved the organization so there was no worry of immediate discovery. But if Proudmoore and Bearmantle discovered the existence of a remaining egg of Onyxia, there would be a search. Although, the egg was not in good condition. The dark healers in their organization have not been able to improve it's condition over all this time. The only good news was that it has not deteriorated. They needed more time to hatch the egg. The only thing right now keeping the egg from dying was the magical slime covering it. "Keep close tabs on them and be at the ready for an opportunity to take him and his daughter. Doyle wants him alive...for the time being."

"What of the hunter and his sister?"

"Kill the hunter if you want. The druid might be of use to us. Bring her as well. But if she's too much trouble, then just kill her. At the very least, get the baby. If we have her, we control him."

The scrying bowl's glow faded along with Nadine's face. Dillon picked it up and returned to his station in the mage tower.


	17. Chapter 17

Tamlia approached High Priestess Whisperwind, giving her a bow of respect. "I'm returning to duty, Mistress."

Tyrande was standing next to her husband, Malfurion Stormrage, when the young priestess approached. "And how is your ward, Tamlia?"

"She's had her baby. And has captured Kirlothenin."

Tyrande raised an eyebrow in surprise. "How?" The young priestess gave the details of the last few months ending with Lady Jaina Proudmoore's questioning of the blood elf. When she finished, Tyrande thanked her and had her return to her duties. She then turned to Stormrage whose face was full of curiosity, and told him what she knew of Ileeya, Jelune, and Kirlothenin.

"Interesting," the druid leader said.

**...**

It was towards the end of Kirlothenin's second day of captivity when they started. At first it was a shaking of his hands. Then his whole body. Ysuria was the first to notice. She had previously asked Ileeya if she could come and observe for the next week, and that's how she had come to notice his tremors. Ysuria called Ileeya and Jelune over. "What's wrong with him?" Ileeya asked, noticing that the sin'dorei was perspiring as well.

"He's going through withdrawal pains."

Ileeya had to think for a moment before remembering that blood elves were addicted to magic. She had no idea how to deal with this and asked Ysuria for advice. The high elf suggested getting Broll Bearmantle since he had helped another blood elf go through this before. So Ileeya sent Jelune for him and not too much later, the archdruid arrived along with Valeera Sanguinar. Without preamble, Broll set to work making a simple broth of various herbs he had brought along with him. As he did so, he gave a quick explanation that Valeera had to go through this withdrawal as well, and perhaps she could help.

When Broll tried to give the concoction to Kirlothenin, the blood elf refused. "What will happen if he doesn't take it?" Ileeya asked.

"He'll just suffer longer," Valeera answered. She then gave a brief explanation of her own withdrawal issues. "But mine was a bit more complicated as I was also fighting a demon inside me at the time." Ileeya stared at Valeera, finding a new respect for the rogue's strength of will. She was holding Adorei who was awake and squirming in her arms. On impulse, she moved closer to Kirlothenin and held out his daughter so he could see her. "Drink the broth, Kirlothenin. I won't let you hold her until you get over this withdrawal and stop your shaking."

"You c-can just t-take this-s off." Kirlothenin could hardly speak as he held up his wrist with the band on it.

Valeera replied. "Delaying will only make the process take longer. Believe me, I know. Just take the stuff and get it over with." She crossed her arms over her chest. "By the way, it doesn't taste all that great." She shrugged at Broll's warning look. "But it works."

Kirlothenin put his arm down then, watching his daughter moving her fingers and looking around, he reached for the broth and began to drink.

After that, they moved him to Tamlia's room. The priestess had left that morning for Darnassus. Over the next three days, Broll, Valeera, or Ysuria were always with him to help him through the worst of his withdrawal pains. Ileeya stayed away for the most part. She didn't understand this addiction and didn't want Adorei near him while he was like this. Although, she did venture into the room when it was quiet a couple of times. Both times he was asleep. She could tell it was an exhausted sleep. He looked...vulnerable. Vulnerable was not a word she normally associated with Kirlothenin. She quietly left both times.

A few days later, when he seemed to have recovered and was up and moving around again, Broll and Valeera left. Ysuria remained to teach him some meditative exercises to help him avoid becoming addicted again. She then resumed her original job, that being silent observation.

**...**

What seemed like an easy job, turned out to be rather cumbersome. Dillon had watched the place as best he could without drawing attention to himself. But they were all together. And just himself against a hunter and a druid was bad enough. He had no worry about Kirlothenin since he wore that wristband. But Ysuria being in the home deterred his ability to do his job as well. Then there was the issue that Kirlothenin could not leave the property with that wristband on. So, Dillon decided to focus on the baby instead. _Get the baby_, she said, _and we'll have Kirlothenin_. A plan came to mind that he felt would work. But it would require help.

**...**

Ileeya pulled some carrots out of the vegetable garden and shook the dirt off them. Putting them into the basket, she glanced back towards the house. It had been nearly a week since Kirlothenin had recovered. He didn't speak of what he went through with the addiction withdrawal, but instead, picked up his daughter and simply began to play with her. Ysuria remained standing off to the side watching them. It was at first rather odd having her stand there for at least half a day each day. But as the time passed, Ileeya began to almost forget she was there.

With Kirlothenin making no attempts at escape or assault, Ileeya had finally been able to convince Jelune to return to his father temporarily at least. Ileeya almost smiled when she had mentioned asking him to say hello to Tamlia for her. The hunter seemed a bit more inclined to leave her with the prospect of seeing the priestess again. Kirlothenin was behaving himself and with Ysuria visiting every day, Jelune had finally relented and returned home.

She entered the house once more and washed the carrots in the basin. Adorei was asleep on some flat cushions on the floor and Kirlothenin had some of her herbs, crushing some of them in a bowl. Cutting the carrots, she watched him. Despite his captivity, he didn't seem to be very concerned with his situation. In fact, he seemed to have settled in and was even smiling on occasion. This bothered her. Why was he happy about his situation? To her knowledge, he hadn't even tried to escape. Deep down she was annoyed that he wasn't in the same misery she had been when she had been his prisoner. After watching him for a few minutes with the herbs, she asked him, "What are you doing?"

He looked up in mild surprise. Ileeya had avoided speaking to him except in concern to Adorei. "I'm extracting the juice from these herbs."

"Why?"

"I'm making an elixir that helps one see someone who may be invisible nearby."

Ileeya's eyes narrowed. "You're an alchemist?"

Kirlothenin put the bowl and pestle down, sitting back with his arms crossed in front of him. "Is there a problem with that?"

"You could have told me!"

"I didn't know it was an issue."

"For all I know you could have concocted some potion to do...I- I don't know what!" Ileeya felt herself getting a bit irrational. Her pent up emotions were starting to get the best of her.

Kirlothenin's mouth twitched as he tried hard not to smile. "Oh, I see. I'll just make something up and slip it into your food or drink right in front of Miss Eagle Eyes over there." He jerked a thumb in Ysuria's direction.

Ileeya had forgotten about Ysuria and felt the blood rush to her face at losing her temper in front of their guest. She decided to go calm down and quickly made up an excuse to leave. "I'm going upstairs to nurse Adorei." She picked the baby up and walked quickly upstairs to her room.

"Uh..." Kirlothenin almost mentioned that Adorei wasn't even awake, but decided to skip it, allowing himself an amused smile.

"For a prisoner, you seem to be enjoying yourself quite well."

The blood elf turned around to look at Ysuria. "The statue speaks."

She approached him and sat down. "I've been trying to make up my mind about you, Kirlothenin Dawnwhisper."

He picked up the bowl and pestle again, but only casually worked on the herbs. "And?"

"You're a good soul who took a wrong path."

He stopped what he was doing and looked at her for a good long minute."And how did you come to this conclusion."

The corner of Ysuria's mouth turned upward. "Observation."

Kirlothenin grunted but made no acknowledgement one way or another. He started crushing herbs again.

"You love your daughter."

He didn't bother looking up. "Ooo...did it take you all week to figure that one out?"

"You care about Ileeya."

This stopped him. He sat there frozen for a minute. Without looking at her, he muttered. "She is the mother of my child. Of course there would be some transference of emotions. It means nothing."

"Mm-hmm." Ysuria stood once more. "You saved her from a witch doctor."

"After nearly selling her into slavery...or worse."

"But you let her go afterwards."

"And I hunted her down again."

"You saved her from Brimgore."

"After I..." He growled under his breath, not wanting to continue the conversation. "It matters not how I feel. She will never feel that way about me."

"Yet you desire to protect her."

"She is a good mother to Adorei."

"So you avoid saying anything that would put them in danger."

He stood up, setting the bowl and pestle down. "That's what this is about?" He didn't wait for an answer. Instead he went upstairs to his own room. Ysuria followed him. "You don't take a hint, do you?"

"You're working against yourself, here, Kirlothenin. If you really wanted to protect them, then you'll let us know what dangers to look for."

"I don't know!" He whirled around to see her in his doorway. "I don't know who they are. Only that they are part of some organization. They wanted me to join them, but I declined. I have no idea if they have kept any tabs on me or not, but I didn't want to take any chances. Clients I've worked for have tried to kill me instead of paying me. I've done many dangerous jobs and the only thing that kept me alive was my wits and my silence."

Ysuria kept her cool. "You worked alone and had only yourself to care about. Now you have two others to protect. But you can't as long as you have that on." She pointed to his wristband. "We want to protect them as well, Kirlothenin. And not just them. Whatever came from Onyxia's lair couldn't be good for anyone. Help us and let us help you."

Kirlothenin stood in silence as he considered her words. It had been so long since he trusted someone else. His mind flicked back to his withdrawal pains and how she and the others had done what they could for him, even though they didn't have to. Perhaps it was time to start working with others again. With a short sigh he pointed for her to go downstairs. Once they were both seated at the table, he spoke. "It was an egg. Presumably Onyxia's." He raised a hand at her protests that an egg of Onyxia's couldn't have survived after all this time. "It was covered in some sort of slime that had magical properties to it. I assume it's what has kept it alive. For all I know the egg is hatched by now and they are taking care of a whelpling."

"Where did you meet them afterwards?"

"At the edge of Un'Goro Crater."

"Was that where they worked from? Or just a spot to meet them?"

"Not sure. They approached me in Gadgetzan."

Ysuria stood up. "Thank you for the information, Kirlothenin." After saying her farewells, Ysuria returned to the mage tower to talk to Lady Proudmoore and Broll Bearmantle.

**...**

When Ileeya returned downstairs, she resumed cutting the vegetables. Adorei was left upstairs in the crib with the door open so they could hear if she awoke. With nothing else to do, Kirlothenin stepped over and began to help with the dinner preparation. Ileeya stepped over so as to keep a certain amount of space between them. They worked in silence for awhile before Kirlothenin finally spoke. "We don't have to be enemies, Ileeya." He kept his eyes on what he was doing.

She stopped and glanced up at him. "What? Are you expecting us to be best friends now?" Sarcasm dripped from her voice as she gathered the carrots and put them in a bowl.

"No. But our constant bickering will not be good for Adorei. She'll eventually notice it."

Ileeya paused again and sighed. "Then we'll just have to figure out a way to deal with it once she's old enough."

"Ileeya, there's something you should know." He waited for her to look at him. "I told Ysuria the information they were seeking. There's a possibility of a danger to myself, you, and Adorei."

"Then I'll ask Lady Proudmoore if she could spare some extra guards to keep near the house."

"They can't protect you and Adorei like I can."

Ileeya's face hardened. "This is just a bid for freedom." She turned away but was stopped by his hand on her arm. She shook it off, giving him a warning look for touching her.

"You made a promise to me, once that you wouldn't run away if you could just help your brother. I trusted your promise. I'll make a promise to you now not to leave or do anything to hurt you. Just allow me the freedom to protect my daughter...and you."

Ileeya stared at him with confusion on her face. "I- " She looked away, trying to sort out her own thoughts and feelings. "The difference here, Kirlothenin, is that I'm trustworthy, and you are not."

"I am now. Ileeya, Please."

Ileeya blinked. "I'll...think about it." She wouldn't make any decision unless she spoke to Jelune, or Jaina, or Broll, or anyone else. She put the vegetables away, no longer hungry. She then returned upstairs for the rest of the night.

With a sigh, he glanced at the laundry/bathing room and headed in that direction. Once inside the room, he pulled out the small vial with the acidic liquid from it's hiding spot. Turning it between two fingers, he thought about the last week and half. If he had this when he was going through his withdrawal pains, he would with no doubt have pulled it out and used it. Or at least tried to. But the vial was downstairs while he had been upstairs. And he was being watched constantly then.

But now... He didn't want it to escape. He didn't want it so he could feed his addiction. He wanted to protect his... family. Kirlothenin opened the vial and carefully poured it on the wristband. It'll take a few minutes for the acid to burn through the metal. He'll just have to hope that Ileeya will understand.

"GET AWAY FROM HER!" Kirlothenin's head snapped in the direction of Ileeya's room. He left the room and bounded up the stairs three at a time. The door to her room was shut and he could hear struggling. He rammed his shoulder into the door. It didn't budge. He could hear voices on the other side of the door. Male. "Ileeya!" More sounds and he tried again. He heard a crack of the wood, but the door still didn't budge. There must be something on the other side blocking the door. He pulled at the wristband. The acid was doing it's work and he could feel the metal start to bend. _Come on! Come on!_ He ignored the pain as he forced the band to slowly come apart where the acid had weakened it. There! At last! He could feel the magic flow into him again and he teleported himself into her room.

The first thing he saw was a human male near the crib struggling with roots that had grown all around him. Ileeya had a staff and was trying to fight off another human with a dagger in each hand. The two had obviously been struggling as there was a line of blood from a cut on Ileeya's arm and the man with the daggers had a cut on his cheek. He looked angry and hadn't noticed the mage's sudden appearance. A frost bolt alerted him to the fact that Kirlothenin had arrived. He was knocked a little off balance and Ileeya took advantage of butting him with the end of her staff, effectively knocking him down. She then raised the staff above her head, ready to knock him out when he retaliated by thrusting his dagger into her thigh. She cried out in pain, dropping her staff and falling backwards.

"NO!" Kirlothenin blasted him with arcane bolts and suddenly pain exploded throughout the back of his head. He stumbled forward, barely hanging on to consciousness and turned to see a third man there with a broken chair. His head throbbed as he cast his frost nova spell to keep the men at bay while he tried to recover. He struggled to a standing position and turned to see that the man in the roots had freed himself and was picking a crying Adorei up. Kirlothenin stumbled over to him when he heard a cry of pain from Ileeya. He turned to see the rogue had grabbed her hair and forced her head back, his remaining dagger at her throat.

The dagger man spoke to him now. "Make another move and I'll kill her!" Kirlothenin froze. "We don't need her alive." Blood dripped from where the dagger was digging into her skin. With his teeth grinding and throwing a steely glare in dagger man's direction, Kirlothenin lowered his hands. He heard movement behind him and pain exploded for a second time before his world went black and he fell face forward.

**...**

Ysuria knocked at the door again. They should have answered by now. She tested the door. It was unlocked. With a glance at Broll, she entered the house. "Ileeya?" The house was silent. "I've got a bad feeling." Broll grunted in agreement. He shifted into cat form and started to prowl. Ysuria looked around and saw there was food on the counter. They headed upstairs. Kirlothenin was not in his room. She moved towards Ileeya's room next. A glint of silver caught her eyes and she bent down to pick it up. "He found a way to get out of the wristband." It's edges were corroded as though some sort of acid were used on it. Ysuria tried the door. Something blocked it from the other side. "Ileeya?"

A growl behind her warned her to move. Broll had switched to bear form and now used the form's bulk to bash in the door. When it finally opened, they entered. A dresser had been used to block the door. "He took them and left." Bearmantle had shifted once more as he looked around at the mess.

"I don't think so." Ysuria studied the broken wristband. "Look here. There's blood on it. He was in a hurry to get it off."

Broll examined the floor near the crib. "Roots were used here." He golden eyes glanced over to the broken chair.

"Blood over here." Ysuria was standing near a broken window as she spotted Ileeya's discarded staff. "There was a struggle."

Broll glanced over the scene. "You said he was afraid of others coming after him if he talked of the egg?"

Ysuria nodded. "This is not Kirlothenin's doing. Someone broke in. It appears that they _were_ keeping tabs on him after all."

Broll nodded his head. "The question now is, how are we going to find them?"

**...**

_The Next Day..._

Dormir continued his path as he walked the Emerald Dream. The view, as always, was beautiful. There had been no problems here ever since the Nightmare had been contained. His patrol within the Dream took him within the sights of only two other druids who each nodded their greetings and went on their way.

"Dormir Whitestar."

He turned around in surprise to see Malfurion Stormrage approach, his face sober. "Greetings, Shan'do. What can I do for you?"

"Your daughter needs you."


	18. Chapter 18

"Ileeya?"

She felt something shaking her as she began to stir from the dark recesses of sleep.

"Ileeya. Wake up."

Now it was more than the voice and the shaking trying to wake her up. A deep throbbing in her head began to make itself known. As if not to be outdone, her left thigh began to ache and throb even more than her head. Then her muscles let her know that they were in pain. More throbbing pain on her arm and neck and she could no longer seek the comforts of unconsciousness. Ileeya opened her eyes to look into the concerned face of Kirlothenin. She reached up a weak arm to push him away, but didn't have the strength. She only wanted to return to the bliss of unconsciousness.

"Ileeya. Heal yourself. You've been bleeding. You have to heal yourself."

A moan escaped her lips as the words sunk in. It was hard to concentrate through all this pain. She somehow got out her rejuvenation spell and the throbbing in her head died down a little bit. She took a moment to rest, then began to ask of nature for it's healing touch. There was a sharp pain in her leg as the newly formed scabs tore and the dagger wound began to close. Again, she rested before casting a nourishing spell to strengthen herself. Finally, the pain in her head, arm, neck, and leg faded away. Her muscles still ached, but there was nothing she could do about that.

Ileeya sat up and looked around. Now that there was no more pain to tend to, her mind began to whirl in memories of intruders. Intruders who were after Adorei. "Adorei!" She frantically looked around the room, hardly noticing the cave-like walls, but definitely noticing the barrenness of it. "Where's Adorei?"

His hands found her shoulders as he placed himself in front of her, forcing her to look at him. "She's not here. They have her somewhere else. But she's alive and unharmed."

She was too worried about Adorei to shrug off his touch. "How do you know? What do they want with her?" She started to stand up, but found her left leg too weak to support her full weight yet. Only time will help restrengthen the muscle. She felt Kirlothenin's arms reach out to support her, and she took it not caring about the past between them for now.

His voice was gruff as he answered. "They have her because of me."

Ileeya was about to ask why when she recalled their last conversation. "This is about the Onyxia thing?"

"I believe so, yes."

"Why am I here?" The last thing she had heard the intruder say was that they didn't need her alive. She didn't mean anything to Kirlothenin. There was no reason to keep her. So why didn't they kill her back at the house? Before Kirlothenin could answer, Ileeya could hear Adorei crying somewhere. The sound was getting louder and she limped over to the door, using his arm as a crutch. There was a window in the door which she peered through. She could only see what she assumed was a guard by the door and the opposite wall of the hallway.

The door opened suddenly and an arm reached out, grabbing her and pulling her forward. Ileeya lost her balance and fell to the floor. She caught herself on her hands and knees, but froze as something sharp pressed against the back of her neck. "Don't try anything mage!" A moment passed and the door was shut; Kirlothenin inside the room still, Ileeya outside. The sharp edge was removed and she was pulled up to her feet. They pushed her forward and she had to reach her hand out to the wall to help balance herself as she limped along the hallway. Thankfully, the walk wasn't long. Just two doors down, they pushed her into another room. Inside lay Adorei, screaming in frustration and hunger and not understanding why her mom hadn't come yet. "Shut the kid up!" The guard said, then shut the door. Ileeya limped quickly to her baby, sitting beside her and picking her up. She held Adorei in relief for just a moment before loosening her tunic so that the infant could nurse.

**...**

Kirlothenin rubbed his wrist again. A small bit of the acidic liquid had rubbed off the wristband and had eaten away a little of his skin. It burned, but he ignored the pain, as well as the pain in his head from being hit twice. What _did_ they want with him? If they were just trying to shut him up, they could have just killed him. Instead, they went through the trouble of taking his daughter to use as insurance against him. A darkness filled his gaze as he thought about the karma of his once using Ileeya as insurance against Jelune.

He paced back and forth. Where did they take her? He hoped it was to Adorei as the infant was now quiet. He wished they had just brought the infant into the room. He couldn't teleport out. He'd already tried. But he could use some of his other magic. Still, he didn't know where they were. Just from the little he was able to observe, they were underground somewhere with lots of members of this organization between them and the exit. Escape seemed impossible right now. Hm, what if he turned invisible? No. They would think he'd escaped and might kill Ileeya and Adorei. His mind raced for any other ideas of how to get out of this mess.

Suddenly, he remembered Ysuria and the conversation he'd had with her...last night? He had no idea of how much time had passed. Surely they would have noticed they were missing by now. But, would they think he had escaped and taken Ileeya and Adorei with him? Kirlothenin stopped. His past wrong decisions were catching up to him too quickly, it seems. The blood elf shook his head. Ysuria was too observant. She would figure it out. He hoped. But what then? They didn't even know where they were.

The door opened and one of the guards entered, holding a crossbow aimed at him. "Out!" Kirlothenin obeyed and found himself led down the hallway. There was a pause at another door and two guards entered. Ileeya's voice was heard. "Wait! No. Don't take- unf!" Kirlothenin started to run inside but a sharp jab at his back kept him still. A moment later, Ileeya came limping out holding her hand over her stomach. The guard holding Adorei followed.

Kirlothenin offered her his arm for support once more as they made their way through the corridors and out into a large cavern where there were numerous people. In the middle was a man in brown and black clothing. His long black hair was held with a band at the nape of his neck. Next to him, Kirlothenin recognized the woman who had retrieved the egg. He didn't see the blood elf who had hired him, however. Onyxia's egg sat on a table to the left of them.

"Ah, welcome, Kirlothenin." The man in brown and black spoke. "I see you decided to...accept our invitation, finally."

Kirlothenin narrowed his eyes for a moment glancing at the human woman then back at the man. "I seem to recall declining. As I said, I'm a loner."

"Ah, but a loner no longer." He gestured to the guard holding Adorei. The guard came forward and the man took the baby.

"Leave her alone!" Ileeya's voice rumbled through clinched teeth. She would have walked up and snatched her back were it not for a guard grabbing hold of her arms.

The man seemed to have noticed Ileeya for the first time. "Ah yes, the mother. Please allow me to introduce myself. Victor Doyle, leader of The Ravenscale Order." He stepped forward, holding out his hand. Ileeya didn't even look at it. He shrugged his shoulders and returned to his previous spot looking at the human woman. "Tell me again, Nadine, why is she here?"

Nadine kept her eyes on Ileeya. "The infant, Victor, is just over a week old. It needs it's mother...for now."

"I see." He thought for a moment and then proclaimed, "I'm sure the infant can survive on milk, or a nursemaid could be found." He waved a careless hand at a guard. "Kill her."

For one second, Ileeya froze. Her silver eyes were wide in terror at the sudden turn of event. Then a baser instinct took over telling her to run. Unfortunately, wanting to flee and being able to, were two different things. The guard tightened his grip on her arms as she began to struggle. Another guard came over and the two easily kept her in place as the one ordered to kill her approached with his sword drawn.

"NO!" Kirlothenin stepped between her and the guard with the sword.

"Hold." Victor held up a hand to stop the guard who had been poised to make a killing blow. "Another reason, it seems, has made itself evident. Belay my last order. She lives, for now." The guard released their hold on her and the one with the sword backed away.

Kirlothenin cursed himself under his breath. "What do you want Victor?"

"Answers. Yours." He handed the infant over to Nadine and rubbed his hands on this trousers. "What did you tell Jaina Proudmoore of us?"

Kirlothenin gave him a stare. If he told them everything right away, they'll just kill all three of them. He had to find a way to keep them alive. For now, this meant keeping them guessing. "Proudmoore? I told her nothing." This was true at least. He had told Ysuria, not Proudmoore. A slight nod of Doyle's head to the guard next to the blood elf resulted in Kirlothenin getting punched in the face.

Ileeya was still in her frozen state of terror, almost feeling like this was happening to someone else. It wasn't until after Kirlothenin had been hit that it had finally sunk in that she was not going to die. And Kirlothenin was the reason why. It occurred to her that if she and Adorei were to get out of here in one piece, then they were going to have to rely on him.

"Lies." Victor crossed his arms in front of his chest. "We know you talked to her. What does she know of us."

"How would I know? All I talked to her about was magic. She is, after all, a fellow mage." Another blow to his head and he had to be held up by another guard.

_Why was he not telling them what they want to know_? Ileeya wondered to herself.

"One more time, Dawnwhisper. What did you tell Proudmoore?"

Kirlothenin felt blood in his mouth and he spit it out. "I told her she should try to wear her hair up, more. A different look, y-" He could no longer say anything as the punch landed in his stomach this time. He was dropped to the ground. Another one landed on his back.

"Stop. Please." Ileeya could only see her one way out of here lying on the floor about to pass out. She rushed forward and knelt beside him, saying a quick rejuvenation spell to help him recover before a guard pulled her away.

Nadine watched the druid and then glanced at Victor. She said something quietly to him and the man's eyes went to Ileeya. "Wait." His eyes never left her as the guards stepped away from Kirlothenin. "Heal him," he ordered her. Ileeya hesitated as she looked at him. Why did he suddenly want her to heal Kirlothenin? After a moments thought, she found no reason not to heal him, and cast her spell.

Victor nodded his head. "You're right, Nadine. And a brilliant idea as well." He stepped over to Ileeya and took hold of her elbow. Ileeya eyed him warily but was in no position to resist. She limped along side of him as they came closer to what looked like a dragon's egg on a table. "This is probably the last surviving egg of the late and great Onyxia, daughter of Deathwing. We of the Ravenscale Order have dedicated ourselves to rescuing the persecuted black dragonflight."

Ileeya looked at him as though he were mad. "Nothing good can come from Xaxas!" she said, using the name the night elves had given Deathwing. She felt Doyle's hand tighten on her elbow.

"That's because you don't understand him." His voice was calm, but there was an underlying warning in his tone. "Now, as I was saying, this egg is not in the best of health. Even with the magical ooze covering it and keeping it alive, the whelping inside is not growing. Our own healers seem to have some issues with healing this egg. Nadine here has suggested to let your druidic heals penetrate the egg and see what happens."

Ileeya was shaking her head no before he even finished speaking. She heard someone clearing a throat behind her and looked to see Nadine holding Adorei. "Do you want to heal the egg, or her?" Ileeya glared at her suddenly wanting to rip the woman's throat out. Something seemed to spark within her. A desire to fight and protect her child. Yet, she recognized now was not the time. She wouldn't be able to reach Nadine before the woman did something to Adorei. So, instead, she pushed her hatred down and turned to face the egg.

She put a hand on the egg, avoiding the slimy parts and began her healing spell. Nothing seemed to happen. So, she focused more inside the egg, unconsciously reaching out with her mind to mentally see within the shell in a similar way that Denatharion had focused on her to find out why she couldn't meditate so many months ago. She searched for what the problem would be. After a few minutes, she felt something deep within. It didn't seem to be physical. She probed further, and suddenly felt as though she were on a precipice about to fall off. She pulled back and stepped away from the egg, finding herself perspiring.

"There's something...I...I can't heal it."

"Try again," Victor ordered her.

"You don't understand. If I try again, I...felt like I was going to lose myself."

"If you can't heal it, you're of no use to me." He pulled out his own sword.

"Wait!" Kirlothenin had watched the whole thing, unsure how to react. But now, he knew he had to do something to save her. She had to keep going. "I'll help." Hesitatingly at first, he stepped towards her and, seeing that they allowed him to go to her, he did so and looked her in the eyes. "I can create a temporary mind link with you. If you find yourself losing your way, I'll pull you back."

She looked at him wishing she didn't have to do this. "This...this is beyond me, Kir," she said quietly.

Under his breath so that only she could hear, he replied, "You must try. It doesn't matter if you succeed."

She swallowed and nodded. Kirlothenin touched her temple and closed his eyes as he linked his mind to hers. Then he spoke mentally into her mind. '_There. I can communicate with you this way. Now try. Remember, you don't have to succeed...just attempt_.'

She flinched at the sound of his voice inside her head, but then reached out and touched the egg once more and once more probed until she found the precipice. After a moments hesitation, she pushed a little more feeling as though she had almost reached whatever it was that was keeping the whelping from developing inside. Suddenly she felt as though she were toppling through space. A silent scream escaped as her mind was suddenly jerked back and she was pulled away from the egg by Kirlothenin. Ileeya fell back into his arms, unable to stand from the shock of returning to herself. '_Pretend to faint!_' Kirlothenin's voice said in her head. This wasn't hard as she was limp already. All she needed to do was close her eyes.

"She's fainted from the strain." She heard Kirlothenin tell Doyle. "Let her rest and we'll try again tomorrow."

Victor eyed them for a minute before nodding his head. "I still await answers from you as well, mage. You have until tomorrow to decide to answer truthfully." Kirlothenin picked her up in his arms and they were then returned to their room, with the exception of Adorei who was put in the room two doors down.

As soon as the door was shut, Ileeya pushed away from Kirlothenin and he set her down, letting her go. "Don't...Just...leave me alone." She ignored his confused look. As he had carried her, she had found his arms around her to be comforting. But she can't find comfort in him... not after all he had done to her. She sat down and leaned her back against the wall with her eyes closed. The stress and strain of the past few hours sought release through unbidden tears that fell down her cheeks.

A hand on top of hers caused her to open her eyes. Kirlothenin was there with some conjured bread and water. She took it and slowly forced herself to eat. "Thank you," she said softly as he stood and moved away.

They both sat in silence while they ate until Kirlothenin spoke up. "We have to stall as much as we can, Ileeya. As soon as we are of no use to them, they'll kill us."

Ileeya didn't respond. Down the hall they could hear Adorei start to complain. She stood up, assuming the guard would be here soon to get her. Sure enough, the door opened and a guard pointed a crossbow at Kirlothenin. Another pointed one at Ileeya. "Out!" She limped without protest into the hallway, down the corridor, and into Adorei's room.

Before they shut the door, she turned and looked at the guard. "Unless you intend to do this every few hours, I might suggest just letting me stay in here with her." The guard didn't respond and closed the door. Ileeya went over to Adorei and held her again.

'_Ileeya. I'm still mind-linked with you_. _If anything happens, or if you just need to talk, I'm here_.'

She grimaced at the disembodied voice in her head. How is she supposed to respond to him? She's not a mage.

As if in response to her thoughts, the voice spoke again. '_If you want to talk to me, just think the words the same as if you were going to speak them to me_.'

She had only one thing she wanted to ask him at this point so she tried to do as he described. '_Can you read my thoughts_?'

_'__No. To do that I will have to touch your temple. And it would be...uncomfortable. This is a simple link to communicate_.'

She considered telling him to sever the mind link, but thought better of it. '_How long does the link last_?'

'_Until I end it or fall asleep_.'

There was no more communication between them for awhile. Adorei had fallen asleep now and the guard had not come for her so Ileeya made herself comfortable next to her daughter. '_Kir_?' She waited for his response then continued. '_Why did you stop them from killing me_?'

He took so long to reply, she thought he wasn't going to. '_I made you a promise to protect you and Adorei. I will keep that promise, even though it was not you who freed me_.'

'_How did they get the wristband off of you_?'

Another pause. '_Get some sleep, Ileeya_.' She was about to push the issue, but decided against it. She was already exhausted from her earlier activity. She closed her eyes and was soon asleep.

An hour later what seemed like an incorporeal form descended to where she lay sleeping. A green-tinted, translucent hand cupped her face and she heard within her head, "_I found you, Daughter. Hold tight Little One. I'm coming._"

"An'da?" Ileeya opened her eyes and looked around the barren room. It was empty. She sighed and closed her eyes to go back to sleep. It must have just been a dream.


	19. Chapter 19

Kirlothenin awoke, unsure of the time or why he had awoken. He stood and walked to the door with the window in it. The guards were there, looking bored as usual. He wanted to check on Ileeya and Adorei, but the mind link had dissipated when he had fallen asleep. He paced back and forth as he tried once again to think of a way to get himself, Adorei, and Ileeya out of this dangerous situation. One option included offering to join the cult. But there was no guarantee that would put Ileeya and Adorei back into a safe position. He couldn't escape by himself. He had to take them with him. But he had no idea how. There were too many guards...too many opportunities for them to be hurt or worse. For once in his life, he was at a loss on what to do.

Kirlothenin sat down to try some meditations. A few minutes later, he felt a nudge in his mind. He recognized it as a probe from that of another mage wishing to communicate with him. He hesitated for a moment as he considered who it might be. He didn't recognize the mind touch so it was someone he had not communicated telepathically with before. He took a chance and opened his mind to the probe.

_'Kirlothenin_?'

The voice in his mind was familiar. '_Yes. Who is this?'_

_'Jaina Proudmoore. I'm with Broll and some of the Cenarion Circle. We're coming to help you_.'

Kirlothenin's hopes for the future jumped. He started to ask how they found them, but decided it wasn't important right now. '_What can I do to help_?'

**...**

Adorei stirred and her hand moved in the air, searching for her mother's touch. Ileeya was already holding her so she put a finger on her hand and Adorei grasped it. She had been up for about an hour just watching her daughter. She recalled the dream she had had last night and briefly wondered what her father would say when he woke up from the Emerald Dream to find he had an unexpected granddaughter. She was sure he would accept Adorei as his granddaughter.

But what about Kirlothenin? _What about him_? She wondered to herself. She had more to fear than just getting out of here alive. Should they survive, she doubted she would be able to capture Kirlothenin again. The last time it was only because she surprised him. He wouldn't let himself be surprised by her again. Would he retaliate? Would he take Adorei away from her never to be seen again?

Her mind returned to the brief conversation they had had last night. He said he had promised to protect her and Adorei if she had freed them. But she didn't free him. This cult did. He didn't have to hold to that promise. _But he did. He stopped them from killing you_. Why?

The door opened and two guards entered. Ileeya stiffened and held Adorei close to her. "Just let me hold h-" She ducked and backed away as one guard lifted his hands to grab Adorei. However, the other guard had positioned himself behind her and grabbed her arms, holding them against her so that she could not prevent the first guard from taking her baby. She felt a pang of hurt, frustration, and regret all mixed into one as she was pushed towards the doorway.

Just as before, Kirlothenin was there with two more guards, one with a crossbow, the other a sword. She didn't look at him as she tried to hold herself together, so she was surprised at a quick touch to her temple. It was brief and almost seemed as though he were merely brushing her bangs out of her eyes. '_Can you hear me? Don't answer vocally_!'

'_Yes_.'

'_Good, because we're getting out of here shortly. I've been in contact with Proudmoore. Or, rather, she has contacted me. They found us- Don't look at me_!'

Ileeya had looked at him in startled surprise, then at his warning, quickly looked down, her head tilted down so they wouldn't see her expression. _'How_?'

_'I'll explain later. They won't attempt anything until all three of us are together. We have to figure out how to get Adorei back_.'

They continued down the corridor until they had come out into the large cavern. It was smaller than Onyxia's lair, but still fairly large. They saw some black whelpings flying around to one side. Ileeya tried to recall if they were there yesterday or not. The dark egg was still on the table covered in the mysterious slime. Victor and Nadine were there as well. Ileeya threw hateful glares at them. Nadine was nonplussed at the glare. She merely gave her own superior smirk as she moved over to the guard and took Adorei from him. "You know, Victor," she spoke to him but did not take her eyes off of Ileeya. "I suppose I could get used to having a baby around. Perhaps we could keep this one and raise her under your own personal tutelage."

Victor glanced at first in surprise at what his second-in-command had said, then saw the look on her face and followed her gaze to the angry druid. A slow smile crept onto his face. "Hm, you may just have another brilliant idea, Nadine. Of course, if it doesn't work out we could just feed her to a drake."

Ileeya bristled and took a step forward, but Kirlothenin put out a hand to stop her. "They're taunting you. Don't let them get to you." In her mind she heard him say, '_Control your emotions! Focus on your task at hand_. _If we can't get Adorei safely in our possession then when Jaina and the Cenarion Circle attack, she'll be the first to be killed followed swiftly by us!_' Ileeya clinched her teeth and tried hard to reign in her roiling emotions.

Doyle's smile only increased at the angry parents in front of him. But his attention drifted towards Kirlothenin. "Now, about that information."

Kirlothenin spoke quickly, hoping to gain some time. "I told the truth, Doyle. I told Proudmoore nothing." Before a guard could retaliate physically, he raised a hand to stop him. "Ah, I told someone else."

Victor narrowed his eyes. "Who?" Whoever it was needed to be found. Their organization was not in a good position to be found out by certain others, yet.

'_I've got a plan, Ileeya.'_ He mentally told her of his plan in between his vocal sentences to Doyle of how a mage had tricked him into revealing information about the egg.

"What's her name?"

Kirlothenin didn't want to betray Ysuria so he gave the only name he could think of that Victor couldn't use against him. "N'lar." He ignored Ileeya's glance.

"Don't think me so gullible as to believe your story without double-checking it's veracity." Victor motioned for one of the followers, a human, to come forward and told him to verify the existence of a N'lar in Theramore and if she was in contact with Kirlothenin. Once the follower left, Victor turned to the egg. "Now, as for this other task..." He motioned for the two to come forward. They both approached the table which also brought them within reach of Victor and Nadine...and Adorei.

'_Get ready._'

Ileeya felt so much adrenaline coursing through her, she couldn't keep her hands from shaking. How was she going to do this if she could hardly keep herself in control. She wasn't sure she had the strength to do this. Suddenly, a memory came to her. _"Strength of the heart is what gives you the resolve to take action... action that is rooted in intents that are pure and forthright... You must show resolve for that which you believe in, and you must be willing to fight for it. The mother bear shows endless conviction in protecting her young..."_

With a deep breath, she found herself resolving to do what was needed to protect and save Adorei and herself. In that moment, she felt a presence, ever so briefly, touch her spirit. Another memory came to her. _"I believe that when the time is right, the Great Bear Spirit will grant you his blessing. Keep alert for it and accept it when it comes."_ Had she just been blessed by the Great Bear Spirit? It only took a second to answer the question herself. Yes.

'_Now!_'

Ileeya cast her roots spell on Victor just as Kirlothenin turned and grabbed Adorei out of Nadine's arms. He then cast his blink spell and was 20 yards away from them and the guards in an instant. Ileeya turned to run to him, but Victor was faster. He grabbed her arm through the entangling roots and she struggled to free herself. Nadine was watching where Kirlothenin had gone and began to cast a fire spell in their direction.

Ileeya wasn't about to let that happen. She said the briefest of prayers to Elune that she did this right and then pictured herself in her mind becoming one with the spirit of the bear and transformed herself into a raging bear! Without hesitation, she bashed Nadine and stopped her spell cast. She then growled and mauled Victor, swiping one massive paw across his face and down to the arm that had once held her. Rage filled her at their threats towards her helpless infant and she let out a menacing roar. If felt good to take action finally.

'_Ileeya! We have to go! Even as a bear you're no match for the whole Order!_'

She turned to look around to see that a dozen or so cultists had begun to surround her. Another roar was heard and everyone turned to see an even larger druidic bear make his challenge from a ledge on the other side of the room. Behind the bear, Jaina Proudmoore stood casting fireballs towards the surprised cultists. Ileeya barreled through the Ravenscale members that stood between her and Kirlothenin. Once she reached him, she shifted back to her regular form and followed the blood elf up some stairs that led to the ledge Jaina and, who she assumed, was Broll Bearmantle in bear form.

"Follow this tunnel out! You'll find a gryphon ready to take you away! Go quickly. We have other business here." It was Jaina who spoke. Ileeya gave her a look of mixed gratefulness and awe. This human woman seemed so...humble and gentle when they had first met her, and Ileeya had had a hard time picturing her as a powerful leader. But seeing her now, she couldn't believe she had ever thought otherwise.

Ileeya glanced back in the cavern to see other druids had picked up the fight, making their way to the table which Onyxia's egg sat. She also saw just in time, Nadine and the injured Victor Doyle stepping through a portal. They had escaped the druids. Kirlothenin grabbed Ileeya's hand and ran with her through the winding tunnel. After what seemed like forever, they emerged from the tunnel into the warm morning air.

They were at the base of what looked like a volcano. Ileeya quickly wondered if they had been inside a volcano, why hadn't it been extremely hot inside? She could only assume some sort of magic had kept the cavern cooler and tolerable for those who dwelled within. About 30 feet from the entrance a golden gryphon stood waiting. Kirlothenin handed Adorei to Ileeya and lead them to the creature. He helped her climb into the saddle and then climbed on behind her. Ileeya could only hold onto some of the gryphon's white feathers as she held Ileeya. Kirlothenin's arms came around them, helping to steady them as the gryphon leaped gracefully into the air.

As they flew higher into the sky, she looked down to see they had been in some sort of gigantic crater. Un'Goro Crater. Set between three deserts, the land was lush with wild life and plants. An exotic place full of dangers as well. Kirlothenin guided the mount northwest and they flew in silence, just glad to be alive and out of danger.

**...**

Victor Doyle sat back as one of the dark healers tended to the deep gashes Ileeya's claws had made while she was in her bear form. The right side of his face held three stripes along with the left side of his chest and shoulder. Blood spread on his tunic and he glared at Nadine. "I thought you said she couldn't shapeshift!"

Nadine was pale. In part it was from their escape efforts. But it was also due to Victor's outrage. His outrage that was focused on her. "I was relying on information provided by Thorion. He said that she had never shapeshifted before."

"Well, somehow she's learned how! Had we known she could do that, I would have taken measure to prevent it!" He was forced to lay back down on the sand as other members of their order erected a tent to keep the sun off of them. Their rendezvous point was a simple sandy area in the mountain region between Un'Goro Crater and Thousand Needles. It was a spot no one went to. There was no reason to. There was no plant or animal life. The only way to get there was by a flying mount or teleportation. The rocky cliffs that surrounded them, helped to hide them should someone happen to fly over. It was a near perfect spot to go if one didn't want to be found.

"Now, tell me, Nadine. How did Jaina Proudmoore find us?"

Nadine could only shake her head. She had no answers. "I will find out."

"You will." The anger in his voice had left, but there was a coldness left in it that, despite the heat of the noon day sun overhead, sent a shiver down her spine.

The dark healer had finished his job and Doyle sat up. "Get me the trinket." Nadine reached into her hip satchel and pulled out a small object. It was flat and round with a delicate ebony frame. The center was made of glass that was polished so that no stains, prints, or any smudges of any kind remained. He stood and walked off away from the others and there looked into the glass, muttering a few words to activate it. Within the glass, a human with dark skin and black hair appeared.

"Have you succeeded?"

Doyle bowed his head. "No, Master Sablemane. Jaina Proudmoore and the Cenarion Circle somehow found us and retrieved the egg. We managed to save some whelpings." It sounded feeble in his mind. But he had to state some success at least.

"I have whelpings from the Wyrmcult here in Blade's Edge. I am...disappointed, Doyle."

Victor swallowed. "I'll retrieve the egg."

"I doubt that. By now the egg will be well guarded and possibly in the hands of the other flights, or destroyed."

"May I serve you in another manner, Baron?"

There was silence for a few minutes, then, "For now, continue your work. Regrow your Order. Then maybe I'll decide to accept your devotion once more." His image faded.

Victor Doyle's hand tightened into a fist. He knew what Baron Sablemane's order meant. Demotion. He was no longer a favored. Only if he could regrow his Ravenscale Order could he possibly be redeemed in his Master's eyes. He returned to where the others were gathered. "We start over." They looked at each other, but said nothing. "We start over. But as we do, we wrap up one piece of unfinished business." Anger and hatred filled his eyes as his fist clenched so tightly his fingernails dug into his skin. "Find Kirlothenin Dawnwhisper and kill him! But not the druid. Bring her to me." He looked out over the nearly white sand in the mountain recess, his right hand subconsciously rubbing the new scars on his cheek. "I want to kill her myself."

**...**

Ileeya ripped the lower half of her tunic and tore a wide strip away. They had stopped on a mountain cliff facing a lush jungle. She reviewed an image of a map of Kalimdor in her mind. If they had just left Un'Goro Crater and were traveling northwest, then the jungle below should be Feralas. She moved over to Adorei who was lying on Kirlothenin's cloak on the ground. "How long will it take to return to Theramore?" With practiced skill she removed the wet diaper and replaced it with the torn strip of her tunic. That would have to do until they could get somewhere with a proper diaper.

"We're not going to Theramore."

Ileeya gave him a sharp look, suspicion coming forward as she swaddled Adorei and held her close. Her previous fears swarmed into her mind. Was he going to take Adorei from her? She swallowed. "Don't take her from me."

Kirlothenin had just conjured some bread and water and gave her a look. His eyes traveled from Ileeya to Adorei and back to Ileeya. "Why do you think I'm going to take her from you?"

"What else could it be? We're not returning to Theramore. You're free from the wristband. I have no control over you. You're free to take her and disappear to who knows where and I'll never see her again!" Her voice rose to near hysterics as her fears began to take hold.

"Enough, Child!" Kirlothenin snapped.

Ileeya stopped her hysterics and suddenly became angry. "I told you not to call me that! I'm not a child!"

"Then stop acting like one!" He marched up to her looking into her eyes and taking gentle hold of her arms. "Think about it, Ileeya. How did they know we were in Theramore? They have spies there. It's not safe for us there anymore."

"But-"

"You saw Doyle and Nadine escape. There are bound to be others who have escaped as well. And I'm sure Doyle will not exactly be happy about that swipe you gave him in your bear form." His irritation suddenly gave way to a smile. "Though that was one of the highlights of my morning."

Ileeya blinked at him in confusion as it slowly dawned on her what he was saying.

"We go where Broll suggested, and I agree. The safest place for us right now is Feathermoon Stronghold." He saw understanding come into her eyes and let her go, stepping away to the edge of the large cliff.

He wasn't going to take Adorei. Relief flowed over her, along with something else; contrition. He was right. She had acted on impulse without thinking things through, just as a child would. Adorei began to nudge her and seek food. Ileeya turned away from Kirlothenin and covered her shoulder as she allowed her daughter to nurse.

A short while later, Ileeya lay a sleeping Adorei on the cloak on the ground then stood up. Turning to the blood elf near the edge of the cliff, she hesitated, then walked over to him. "I'm...sorry for making assumptions."

He glanced up at her and offered her the bread and water that was sitting on a small floating tray. She sat down and took the bread.

After a moments silence Kirlothenin spoke up. "The fault is partially mine. I have given you many reasons not to trust me." Ileeya said nothing and he turned to her. "My promise stands, Ileeya. I will protect you and Adorei. You have nothing to fear from me. I am no longer your prisoner. But I will remain with you to perform this duty. It is my only focus in life right now."

She gave him a confused look. "Why?"

Looking away, he waved a hand in her direction. "Because you need protection. Because I need to atone for past wrong doings. Because..." He turned and looked into her eyes. "We don't _have_ to be enemies." He stood and walked over to sit with Adorei.

**...**

Firodren welcomed his next student and indicated he should start work right away on some newly emerging plants. As he watched his student, Jelune entered. "Father! Guess who's here!" The old herbalist turned around to see Dormir standing there. With warm surprise, he greeted his childhood friend with a hug and stood back. "You've awoken from the Dream early, old friend."

"I have, with good reason."

Firodren's smile faded. "Ileeya. You've heard."

"By none other than Malfurion Stormrage himself."

Firodren raised both eyebrows and bid Dormir sit to tell him the tale, but his old friend shook his head. "I'm on my way to Feralas to meet her. I only stopped by to greet my old friend before I had to go."

"I will go with you, Dormir." Jelune didn't ask. He stated a fact.

"Your company will be welcome, son." Just as Ileeya looked at Firodren as a foster father, so too did Dormir look on Jelune as a foster son.

The two left to gather a few items they would need. Shortly after they were gone, and after Firodren returned to observing his student, a ghosted Thorion Nightblade walked away from the shop, smiling to himself.


	20. Chapter 20

_Author's Note: Just a short chapter._ ;)

* * *

><p>Thorion put the scrying bowl away. Finally! Finally he was going to do something other than sit around this boring city! When he had discovered that Ileeya and Jelune had gone to Theramore Isle, he thought he was going to be sent after them there. Instead, they had decided it would be better to use the human already positioned in the small city and told him to stay in Darnassus.<p>

Thorion was furious at this decision, but dared not show it to Victor Doyle. His skills could be put to better use than sitting around listening to conversations all day! But now, oh yes. He was going this time. The only logical place for them to go in Feralas was Feathermoon Stronghold. And only a night elf could penetrate the General's security. No one would have reason to suspect him, though they would probably be cautious of new arrivals. He could handle that.

He packed a couple of items he would need, including a teleportation scroll. Normally only mages could teleport themselves. But occasionally, one would enchant a piece of vellum with the spell to be use at the owner's leisure. He also included a magic prevention collar. Nadine had given him a good long speech about how Ileeya had been able to shapeshift. He had only shrugged. Up until she had disappeared from his watch in Darnassus, she had not been able to shapeshift. What happened after that was not his fault or concern, especially when they told him to stay put! He added a few potions and poisons and he was ready to head out. He was going to enjoy this job.

**...**

Kirlothenin's hood was pulled over his head to hide his features. Although he had no intention to deceive the Feathermoon sentinels, he certainly didn't want them shooting them before they could even land. With Ileeya being a night elf and in full view of the sentinels, they would have a better chance of landing without assault. Besides, he had gotten the impression that Broll had sent word at least to expect them. Two sentinels on hippogryphs approached them as they neared the stronghold. "Hold! What business have you in Feathermoon Stronghold?"

Ileeya replied. "We seek sanctuary. There are others who wish to harm us and we were told by Broll Bearmantle to come here for the time being."

"What are your names."

"Ileeya Whitestar. My daughter, Adorei, and..." She glanced behind her and then back at the sentinel. "...our protector, Kirlothenin." She avoided his last name as it was obviously a sin'dorei name.

"Follow us and do not deter from our course!"

They followed the sentinels over Feathermoon Stronghold until they came to a tall tree with buildings built right into and around it. The sentinels hovered just above the ground where a couple huntresses and a few more sentinels stood waiting. Kirlothenin landed the gryphon and dismounted slowly. He decided it was better to reveal himself sooner rather than later so he slowly lifted his hands and pushed his hood back revealing his pale skin and his shorter, and more erect ears. They were surrounded already so the only reaction the sentinels had was to draw their weapons, keeping their eyes focused on him.

"He means no harm here." Ileeya's voice spoke clearly. "He's here only because he's sworn to protect myself and...my baby." Kirlothenin noticed she avoided saying 'our baby'. Perhaps it was best. The sentinels weren't taking any chances. They kept their weapons drawn and aimed at the blood elf.

"Stand down, sentinels." The voice came from General Shandris Feathermoon who was standing on the steps into the main building situated in the tall tree. The sentinels weapons were lowered, but kept at the ready. "I've received word to expect you three." The blue haired general told Ileeya. She made no glance in Kirlothenin's direction. "Let us chat." Shandris turned, holding her own bow in one hand and led them into the building. Once there she told the sentinels to keep Kirlothenin in a room filled with various plants as she guided Ileeya and Adorei up a ramp to another room for privacy.

Shandris indicated for Ileeya to sit down on a chair while she leaned back against the edge of a desk. She crossed her arms in front of her and stared at Ileeya for a minute before speaking. "When Archdruid Bearmantle asked me to take in a night elf, blood elf, and baby, naturally, I became quite curious as to why." She removed the protective helmet she wore and her long hair came loose, resting on her shoulders. "Needless to say, I have my own methods of getting information and soon had the details surrounding you three up until the point of where you disappeared from Theramore. The child is his."

Ileeya noticed she hadn't asked, merely stated. But she gave a nod to confirm anyhow. She was unsure what General Feathermoon wanted so waited in silence.

"I'm curious. Why do you tolerate him after all he had done to you?"

Ileeya blinked. She wasn't expecting the question. "I...uh...I guess before, I had feared he would take Adorei away from me."

Shandris' eyes narrowed. "You came here claiming him to be your protector."

Ileeya nodded. "Things have...changed. Well, he's changed from what he used to be." She hadn't really thought about it before and actually focusing on this subject has made it uncomfortable for her.

"How?"

Ileeya let out a frustrated breath. Why is _she _being interrogated? "He's put himself in harm's way for me when he could have saved himself. He wants to protect his daughter because...because of his former wife who died and was pregnant and...and.." She stood up, putting one hand to her temple due to a sudden headache. "I'm not ready to answer these questions, I'm sorry. We'll leave if you want us to."

Shandris pursed her lips and stood up herself. "I apologize for the third degree, Ileeya. I wanted to get a sense of who you were, and where you stood in all of this. I think I have my answer." Shandris was taller than Ileeya and looked down at the young mother. "One of my sentinels will show you to where you can stay while here." She walked Ileeya to the ramp and indicated for the sentinels to bring Kirlothenin up.

Kirlothenin watched Ileeya leave with a troubled look on her face and briefly wondered what had transpired in the room above. The sentinels led him up the ramp into the one Shandris stood in. Once inside, she told the sentinels to leave. Kirlothenin didn't like like this, but remained quiet. Shandris held her bow beside her as she walked slowly around him, studying him. After a couple minutes, she stopped in front of him, stepped back, pulled an arrow out and notched it faster than he could react. One of the best archers on Azeroth had her bow and arrow pointed at his chest at point blank range. "You have ten seconds to tell me why I shouldn't shoot you."

A thin line of perspiration formed on his brow. This was _not _what he had expected. He expected an interrogation, not an execution!

"Ten..."

"Nine..."

"Because I was sent here on Broll Bearmantle's and Jaina Proudmoore's word that I would not be killed."

"I don't answer to them. I am the General of the Kaldorei's Sentinel Army. The only ones I answer to are High Priestess Tyrande Whisperwind and Malfurion Stormrage."

"Eight..."

"Seven..."

"I can't protect Ileeya and Adorei if I'm dead."

"The sentinels can do that job just fine."

"Six..."

"Five..."

"You'll leave a baby fatherless."

To this Shandris gave a wicked smile and lowered her aim. Kirlothenin paled and automatically crossed his hands in front of him, not that that would do much good.

"Four..."

"Three..."

"Two..."

* * *

><p><em>Author's Note:<em>

_Yes, my mean streak won out. So tell me, how's the view from the cliff? ;D_

_-Question: "Are these crooks the Twilight Hammer or something? Their affiliation was a bit vague."_

_-Answer: No. Although I had considered the Twilight's Hammer to be in this, in the end, I opted for my own made up cult, though not without it's own ties to lore. And I will tell you here since I don't think I'll get back to more history of the cult further on in this story. The cult is connected to Sabellian (Deathwings son who's in Blade's Edge Mountains in Outland.). The cult is focused on trying to help the black dragonflight regain some of it's numbers by looking after whelpings and finding eggs, etc... _

_-Comment: "Dormir is the sleeping guy and dormir means sleep in Spanish... Clever :P"_

_-Reply: I wish I were that clever. I had no idea. I thought I was just making up a name. Amusing coincidence, though. :)  
><em>


	21. Chapter 21

"I love her."

"The baby?"

"Yes."

"Ileeya?"

Kirlothenin hesitated.

"One." Shandris let go of the arrow and the blood elf found he couldn't breathe for a couple seconds. When he finally realized he was unharmed, he looked down to see the arrow had landed between his feet. At the last instant she had lowered the bow so that she would miss. She then approached him. "Oops." She reached down and pulled the arrow out of the floorboard. "Shall we try again?"

He knew she had missed on purpose. What he wasn't sure of, was what she wanted to hear from him. "She is the mother of my-"

"-I _know _who she is." She notched the arrow again.

He narrowed his eyes. He'd had enough of this game. "Just shoot me and get it over with, General."

She let loose another arrow that whizzed past his shoulder. It took all his will not to flinch away. Shandris drew another arrow. "Why are you here?"

"As you've been told. I'm here to protect Ileeya and Adorei."

"Why?"

"Because I made a promise."

"Why?"

"Because I made a mistake that needed fixing!"

Shandris lowered her bow. "And have you fixed it?"

He looked away. "Not yet."

Her silver-blue eyes studied him for a moment before she returned the arrow to it's quiver and lowered her bow.

"Tell me about yourself, Kirlothenin Dawnwhisper." Her voice had lost its hard edge as she leaned back against a table and crossed her arms.

Kirlothenin was surprised at this abrupt change in the general. He could see her mind was as sharp as her aim. "What exactly do you want to know?"

**...**

Ileeya followed the sentinel to the inn located at the top of what looked like an archway. She liked this inn as there were no full walls around the sides so that she could feel the fresh air at all times. There were no individual rooms. The beds were positioned around one large room. Privacy came only in the form of partitions that others can set up around the bed they have chosen for the night. There were some stairs that led up to a balcony of sorts where tables with bowls of fresh fruit provided refreshment.

Ileeya chose a bed near a corner and set Adorei on it. The infant was awake and squirming. She asked the innkeeper where she might find supplies such as diapers. Innkeeper Shyria said they didn't normally have babies in the stronghold, but said she'd see what she could find. Left alone, Ileeya played with Adorei as her mind reviewed her conversation with General Feathermoon.

She had told Shandris that Kirlothenin had changed. Ileeya hadn't really thought about it or acknowledged it until that moment. But what exactly had changed? She thought about the trip in the ship to Booty Bay and other times when she feared him. Did she still fear him? Ileeya tried to search herself, but where he was concerned, she was only confused. The only thing she seemed to believe right now was his claim to protect them. When he had spoken of it, she could see the earnest in his eyes.

Of course he wanted to protect his daughter. And she assumed he wanted to protect her because Adorei needs her mother. A memory came forward that night on the beach. At the time she was too raw and embittered to acknowledge the fact that he had apologized. A portion of that bitterness returned at the memory. It wasn't a simple matter of apologizing for something like that. Still, according to the memories he had shared with her, the whole thing had not been intentional.

"This is all I could find." The innkeeper had returned and set a stack of cloth on the end of the bed. "I hope it can be of some use." She smiled then walked away. Ileeya took one at the cloths and sighed. She'd need some scissors to cut it down to size. She didn't have any. She tested the fabric to see if she could rip it. Nope, it was a stronger material than her tunic. She sighed again.

Her stomach growled and she decided she'll look for scissors after eating. Ileeya picked Adorei up and went over to a nearby table with a bowl of fruit on it. She chose an apple and crunched into it, enjoying the sweet juice and crisp taste. Laughter in the distance drew her attention to outside the inn. She moved up onto the balcony and looked around. A short distance away, there was a small river that started at a waterfall and eventually lead out into the Veiled Sea. A couple of off-duty sentinels were swimming around in a calm part of the river. Ileeya smiled.

She finished her apple and walked out of the inn, approaching the swimmers. "Mind if we swim here?" The two sentinels shook their heads and Ileeya set Adorei down on the grass to remove her boots and belt. She had no swim suit with her, so she opted to just swim in her tunic and slacks. She then undressed Adorei and entered the water. The river's current was gentle in this section and the water was cool, but not freezing.

She felt herself relaxing as she had not felt in a long time and even began to laugh as Adorei automatically kicked her legs once she was placed in the water. She swam and chatted with the sentinels, even allowing one of them to hold Adorei while Ileeya swam up to the waterfalls and back. Finally, she saw the infant start to shiver and knew it was time to leave. She thanked the two sentinels for their company and exited the water. She bent to pick up her boots and belt.

When she stood up, she saw Kirlothenin standing there leaning back against a tree. There was a smile on his face. This wasn't the self-confident smirk she had at first been accustomed to. Instead, it was a simple, calm smile. She noticed he was holding a couple towels and she approached. "Here, make yourself useful," she said almost playfully, handing him Adorei to dry and took one of the towels for herself.

She dried her face and hair, but could do nothing about the rest of herself because of the wet clothes. Kirlothenin dried his daughter and they both went back to the inn. "What happened with General Feathermoon?"

"Oh, we've come to an understanding. I keep my promise to you and she won't shoot me."

Ileeya felt a smile crawl across her face. She was beginning to like Shandris Feathermoon.

"What about you? You looked troubled when you came out."

Ileeya shrugged, not wanting to discuss it with him. "She just asked some unexpected questions, is all. We need to find some scissors so I can cut this cloth down to size for Adorei." She quickly changed the subject as they got to the bed with the cloths still on it.

Kirlothenin gave her a sidelong glance then went off in search of the scissors. Keeping at a distance, but always within sight, a sentinel assigned to both guard and protect him followed.

**...**

Shandris Feathermoon watched the small family for a few minutes before approaching. "Good evening." Ileeya and Kirlothenin looked up and then stood up from where they were trying to cut some cloth. "I would like to invite you to join me for dinner."

Ileeya frowned as she glanced down at her torn, wrinkled, but dry clothes. "I hope it's informal."

Shandris smiled. "Very. In fact, I'm expecting a couple guests you may know."

"Who?"

Shandris smiled. "You'll see." She bid them follow and as they walked outside the inn and down the steps, she inquired after the infant. Ileeya replied and was surprised when Shandris asked to hold Adorei. Shandris took the baby and cooed. They were standing at the bottom of the steps when a couple hippogryphs landed.

"Ilee!"

Ileeya spun around. "An'da!" She rushed over to her father and gave him a great big hug. "You're awake from the Dream early, Father!"

Kirlothenin instinctively stepped back and away from Shandris and Adorei, tensing up. Sure enough, Dormir's eyes fell on Kirlothenin. "You!" He rumbled out before gently pushing his daughter aside and suddenly transforming into bear form, growling.

A confused Ileeya looked around and then saw who her father was looking at. "Father! Don't-"

A hand on her shoulder tugged her away and she looked at Shandris. "Let him be. It's his right. Kirlothenin knows it. He's ready for it."

Ileeya looked at the blood elf and saw that he was indeed ready to defend himself. Dormir charged Kirlothenin who quickly blinked away. He cast a frost nova spell to stop the bear but Dormir quickly shape shifted to cat form instead and was able to easily step out of the ice. He took a great leap and pounced on the mage who at the same time blasted him with a cone of cold spell.

Dormir roared as he backed off and shifted back to his regular self to cast a healing spell. He stayed in this form as he launched himself to the blood elf, pelting with his fists instead. As though acknowledging this switch to hand-to-hand fighting instead of using their special abilities, Kirlothenin stopped casting spells and raised his own hands to fend off Dormir's fists.

Jelune stood beside his foster sister smiling and silently cheering on Dormir. Ileeya threw him a dirty look. "You're not helping here, Jelune!" Jelune only shrugged and went back to his silent cheering. Ileeya rolled her eyes and watched the fight until she saw them step away from each other. At that instant, she cast her roots spell over both of them. She had had enough.

"Stop it!" Ileeya took Adorei from Shandris and walked up to her father and put Adorei in Dormir's hands. "Father, meet your granddaughter, Adorei." Dormir held the baby with a surprised look on his face. She turned around and walked back to the inn muttering, "You can't fight if you're holding a baby!" The roots went away a few seconds later.

Dormir just stood there with Adorei dangling between his hands. He saw her light violet skin and shorter ears. But it was her eyes he was drawn to. Blue eyes. He threw a glare at the blood elf who had harmed his daughter. Then looked back at Adorei and slowly shifted his arms so that the infant could rest more comfortably in the crook of his arm.

Kirlothenin just stood near, but out of reach of the elder druid. He remained silent as he glanced from Dormir to Jelune to Shandris and back to Dormir and Adorei. Shandris decided that the moment had come to an end and approached all three of them. "I allowed you to get that out of your system. I expect you three will be more civil from this point forward." Although she spoke cordially, there was an underlying warning they couldn't miss. "I suggest you sit and chat before coming to dinner in one hour." She then walked off in the direction of her headquarters.

"You hurt my daughter, sin'dorei." Dormir kept his eyes on Adorei, not wanting to look at the blood elf just yet. There was no response. "Well?" He finally turned his head and glared at Kirlothenin.

Kirlothenin didn't know what to say. There seemed to be no point in saying sorry to him. After a moment, he finally opened his mouth to speak, paused, then went ahead and said it. "I am guilty of that, yes."

Dormir let out a low rumble from his chest. "You will pay for that mistake."

"I am already. And always will."

"I doubt that!"

Kirlothenin finally moved, taking his chances and stepping closer to Dormir as Jelune positioned himself to grab Adorei out of harms way if need be. "Believe it or not, I will always suffer with the memory of what I did to her. It wasn't something I intended to happen, but it happened and I can't change that no matter how much I want to!"

"You _suffer_? Why should you suffer? The whole thing was your doing! Why are you here still? Why don't you just leave? Go and leave her alone?"

"I...can't. I made a promise to protect the both of them."

"We can do that."

"I'm still bound to my promise."

"I release you from it, now go!"

"I'm sorry, but you can't do that. Only she can, and only for herself. I will never give up my daughter."

"YOU HAVE NO RIGHT TO HER!"

Kirlothenin paled slightly at the thought of this night elf taking his daughter away from him. His voice rumbled out his own warning tone. "She is _my_ daughter and I _WILL_ fight for her just as _you_ fight for _your_ daughter!"

"_I_ didn't rape her mother to have _my_ daughter!"

"And _I'm_ at least taking responsibility for my misdeeds!" Kirlothenin's voice had grown cold.

Sensing the tension, Adorei started to fuss and then cry. Kirlothenin started to take her to calm her, but Dormir stepped back, glaring at the blood elf. Adorei began to cry harder. Jelune intervened by taking the infant himself and stepped away to find Ileeya, leaving the two elves with eyes locked on the other.

Seeing that this conversation was going nowhere fast, Kirlothenin finally broke eye contact and walked away.

Dormir walked in the opposite direction until he could calm himself down.

The dinner with Shandris later found the two elves being civil, but only because they did not want to displease their hostess. Shandris seemed to take this in stride and did not try to force conversation. Instead, she sat back and just observed the whole group for the evening. Ileeya had been a bit surprised to see Shandris in civilian clothing instead of her armor. Of course she wouldn't wear her armor all the time, but it was something new. She had to nudge Jelune and asked him how Tamlia was. The hunter gave her a look then said she was fine.

When it was time to go, Shandris pulled Dormir aside to speak with him. "He's not evil."

Dormir gave her a hard look, but out of respect for the general did not walk away. "Are you taking his side?"

"No. I'm just sharing my observations about him. I've seen evil, Dormir. He's not." She crossed her arms in front of her and leaned against the door frame. "I might suggest taking some time to get to know him before you consider denying him access to Adorei."

Dormir wanted to turn from the conversation. With just about anyone else, he would have. But he had a high respect for the general, especially since his wife had been a sentinel. "Have you done this, yourself?"

"I have. And if I had found him to be a worthless little imp who was looking out just for himself, believe me, he would be missing a vital piece of his anatomy right now."

Dormir gave her a slight nod of his head. "I thank you for your, insight, Shandris. I will...consider your words."

**...**

Dormir sat down on the edge of Ileeya's bed. Adorei was asleep next to her. Dormir had claimed the bed near hers and Jelune opted to sleep in the bed that was between Dormir's and Kirlothenin's. Jelune was the only one asleep. "Got a minute, Little One?" He kept his voice low so as to not wake Adorei.

Ileeya sat up and leaned against her father, glad to feel his arm around her in a half hug. "How did you know I was here?" She asked him. "How did you know about...all that had happened?"

Dormir removed his arm and took her hand instead. "After you disappeared from Theramore, Broll Bearmantle was contacted by Stormrage. It seems he had heard about your story from Tyrande. After learning of your disappearance, Stormrage suggested using the Emerald Dream to find you. Apparently, he had done something similar a long time ago. You can imagine my surprise when I saw him approach and tell me you were in trouble. Because you were my daughter I had a certain tie to you. I followed that tie in the Dream and was able to find you."

Ileeya gave a small intake of breath. "I thought it was a dream."

"It was...sort of."

"And so you told him where I was and he in turn sent the Cenarion Circle to come after us."

"Yes. They also wanted to retrieve Onyxia's egg...which, by the way, is now safely in the hands of the dragonflights. Broll told me that he had sent you here and Stormrage gave me permission to suspend my duties in the Dream so that I could come to you."

"I'm glad you're here, An'da."

They fell silent for a few minutes before Dormir spoke again. "Ileeya. Why...Why are you putting yourself through this...this torment?"

She looked at him with mild surprise. "I'm not in torment, father."

"How do you tolerate him after all he's done to you?"

Ileeya sighed inwardly. She supposed she would have to answer questions like this for a long time to come. "I...didn't at first." She then went on to tell him how Kirlothenin had shared his own memories, including the dream that involved how his wife and unborn child had died. Then his request to keep their child for personal reasons and her decision to have the baby. She had to stop and reassure her father that it wasn't just because of Kirlothenin's request that she had kept the baby. She did it for her own reasons as well. Ileeya then told him of her plan to catch the blood elf and his seemingly simple acceptance of the fact. Then she spoke of how he had tried to help her and Adorei when the intruders came, and his choice to save her or save himself. And he chose her and Adorei instead.

"There were other moments while we were held prisoner that I had no choice but to accept his help. And that's when, I think, I started to not hate him as much as I had."

"Ileeya." Dormir gave her a concerned look. "You've heard of cases where people under duress..."

"I know. I didn't say I was in love with him. I just don't hate him anymore." She was silent for a minute then spoke again. "He loves Adorei. I can see it when he's holding her. I believe him when he says he wants to protect her, and by extension me." She thought something over for a minute and looked at her father. "Twice he told me that we don't have to be enemies. I think..." She sighed. "I think perhaps he's looking for a truce between us for Adorei's sake. Perhaps he's even wanting a friendship."

Dormir frowned. "You want to be his friend after..."

"Papa. I can't change the past. I can't change the present. I can either go on hating him and thus transfer my own bitterness to Adorei as she grows or I can-" She stopped herself. She hadn't realized what she was saying. This was something she hadn't really allowed herself to think to much on and now that she's talking about it, it seemed to just rush out. She was about to say she could try to forgive him. But could she really do that? "I can accept the truce and just accept he's going to be in my life as the father of my daughter."

"Do you trust him, Ileeya?"

"I...don't know." She glanced in Kirlothenin's direction. He was sitting on his bed across the room, meditating. "Sometimes I think I can trust him, sometimes I find it hard to do so."

"I can understand the confusion." Dormir gave her a kiss on the forehead and then got up to return to his own bed for the night.

**...**

He hated night elven architecture sometimes. Thorion Nightblade sat on the cliffs to the east of the new Feathermoon Stronghold. The old stronghold on Sardor Island had been overrun with naga after the shattering of Azeroth. He had arrived earlier and found out that the whole family was eating dinner with the general. He gave a quick perusal of the inn to determine they were staying there, then left. With the open style of the inn and no private rooms, it was going to be harder to do what he needed to do.

Now, he watched through the open walls of the inn as two sentinels stood guard inside. He could take one out, but the other would be on him faster than he could do anything. He would have to wait for a more opportune moment. Perhaps in the morning. He had noticed that there was only one sentinel standing guard when they were awake.

Although night elves were nocturnal by nature, some have been able to make the adjustment to night sleeping and day wakefulness due to their allies schedules. Darnassus, especially, had vendors that were open both in the daytime and the nighttime hours. It seems that Shandris had her sentinels keep the same hours as Darnassus. They were active at both times and thus more prepared if there were any sort of invasion by the Horde. Being a rogue, Thorion naturally preferred the night to do his activities. However, it seems he will have to settle for the morning.

This was going to be tricky with the whole family there. He would need to watch for an opportunity to present itself. He may not be able to both kill Kirlothenin and capture Ileeya, but he could always come back for the mage and do the job later. Who knows, maybe an opportunity will present itself for him to do both.


	22. Chapter 22

Ileeya awoke with a start at Jelune's touch. She rubbed her eyes and glanced around. Her father and Kirlothenin were nowhere to be found. She looked down to see Adorei starting to awaken. She was going to want to eat soon. "Where's Father?"

"He went out to do some meditations." He picked his foster niece up and played with her. "The innkeeper brought over some fresh fruit for some breakfast."

Ileeya stepped over to the nearby table and chose an orange. As she peeled it, she glanced at Jelune. "So, do you and father plan to beat up Kirlothenin every day or every other day?"

Jelune paused in the faces he was making at Adorei to look at Ileeya. "Don't you think he deserves it?"

"No." At his surprised look she sighed. "He's beating himself up over it as well. And we can't change the past. Besides, I don't want to have to keep healing you."

Jelune sighed, but said, "Okay. I'll lay off...unless I see him hurt you again."

"Fair enough."

**...**

Kirlothenin stood between one of the archer's towers and the large tree building as he stared at the moonwell. He mulled over recent conversations and events and eventually became aware of being watched. He glanced back at the sentinel assigned to watch him. No, it wasn't her. He glanced around again and finally saw Dormir approaching. Kirlothenin stiffened, but didn't back away.

Dormir studied the mage in front of him. "It seems you have allies in unexpected places, sin'dorei." Kirlothenin didn't respond. "My daughter wants a truce." Again, silence. "I haven't made up my mind whether to do as she wishes." He crossed his arms in front of him as he eyed the blood elf. "My first priority is to her well being whether she likes it or not."

At this, Kirlothenin nodded to show his understanding. He glanced up at the inn's balcony, but didn't see Ileeya or Jelune. They may still be asleep. "I would do the same."

Dormir bristled at his words, but forced himself to stay calm and not lose his temper like he did yesterday. His issue wasn't with the words, but more with the fact that the blood elf would think the same as he would. "I know why you want to protect your daughter. But why do you _claim _you want to protect Ileeya?"

"I told you why."

"Yes. You made a promise. Why did you _make_ the promise?" His voice was gruff, but Kirlothenin could hear the elder elf try to keep it under control. He remained silent for a minute before speaking in a low voice.

"My life was as perfect as I could imagine. Then with one message, my world evaporated. I lost my way. I opted for the dark path of revenge, but was unable to satisfy it. After awhile, I convinced myself I didn't care about anything. I stuffed my painful memories down deep where I wouldn't have to face them. It was on this path that I came across your daughter." He stole a glance at Dormir. The night elf's face was dark, but he was listening. "I didn't care about what happened to her then. She was just another means of getting the only thing I thought I cared about...gold."

Kirlothenin fell silent as he once again stared at the moonwell. "It was while I had Ileeya and Jelune that I began to realize I didn't really want to hurt her. I was at a crossroads and for the time being, my...darker side won out, convincing myself to get the job done first and then I'll never see her again." His eyes narrowed and he looked at Dormir. "My memories and emotions that I had kept in check for so long, were loosened through both drink and dream. And I did something I never thought I would, even on that dark path." He did not want to look at the night elf's angry features, and so opted to study a nearby plant instead. "Because I didn't want her to suffer the memory of my mistake, I blocked it from her mind and thought myself done with her."

"This is your excuse?" Dormir's voice was heavy with emotion.

"No. I make no excuses. I'm only stating what happened from my point of view." Kirlothenin continued. "I finished the job and had planned on never seeing Ileeya again. But what I did remained and I couldn't outrun the memory. The dark path I was on took a quick dive down and I cared not even for myself anymore. I was slowly killing myself." He fell silent as he remembered what seemed like so long ago. "But then I found out that Ileeya was pregnant. A light at the end of my dark path. It was a second chance in my mind. My world crashed with the death, and undeath of my wife and our unborn child. I found myself willing to finally pick up the pieces with the idea of becoming the father I was meant to be."

"At Ileeya's expense!" Dormir spoke up, his hands clinching and unclinching.

"Yes. But she had one hold over me in that regard. She could terminate the pregnancy." He knew he probably shouldn't say this next part, but something inside urged him to just keep going. "If she had done so, in the state of mind I was in, I might have killed her and then myself."

"But you didn't."

"No. Your daughter showed remarkable mercy to me by accepting this burden I put on her." He glanced up at the balcony and saw Ileeya and Jelune at one of the tables there. "It was then that I realized that I had come to actually care about her. I offered to leave her alone after the child was born or allow her to come with me if she found she didn't want to be parted from Adorei. She, of course, chose a third option. Capturing me and allowing me to stay with her and Adorei." He felt eyes on him again and glanced around. If it wasn't Dormir watching him, then who? Shandris Feathermoon was walking towards them. It must have been her.

"I had the means to escape. But, I found her solution...acceptable. That is, until I was pressed to give out information about the Ravenscale Order. At that point I freed myself, but it was too late. They had already come and put Ileeya and Adorei in danger." Kirlothenin's own fists clenched.

By this time Shandris had arrived and stood listening in on the conversation, not seeming to care if it was private or not. In her mind, if it was private, they would simply stop talking. But they didn't so she listened.

"I admit my mistakes, and now I only ask to make up for it and continue to take care of my daughter."

Dormir gave him a hard look. "You need my permission to take care of your daughter?"

"No. I would just rather not have...interference." He gave Dormir a pointed look, reminding him of his words from last night.

Dormir only grunted. "Don't expect me to suddenly accept you with welcoming arms, Kirlothenin!"

The mage glanced up at Ileeya and Jelune again. He could see Adorei on Jelune's lap. Another night elf with blue hair was greeting them and sat down next to Ileeya. "No. I understand your reasons for disliking me." Was there something familiar about that night elf? He looked to be a rogue from his outfit. "I love my daughter. And I-"

He suddenly placed the night elf. Thorion Nightblade! What was he doing here? A sinking feeling came over the pit of his stomach. "Oh no." His voice had become a whisper but both Dormir and Shandris heard it. They looked at each other, then back at him, but he was gone, running at full speed towards the steps to the inn. Without a word, they ran quickly after him.

**...**

Ileeya had finished peeling her orange and stepped out onto the balcony to sit at one of the tables there. Jelune followed with Adorei. She watched him cross his left ankle over his right knee and then place Adorei on his lap. He offered a finger to each of Adorei's hands and she took them, as she looked up at him. Ileeya smiled.

"Imagine finding you here."

She heard his voice, then saw him sit down next to her left side. Ileeya looked at the rogue beside her and tried to recall his name. Oh yes, Thorion. "Uh, hello Thorion. What are you doing here?"

"Business." He took out a dagger and speared a plum from the fruit bowl. He removed the plum but didn't eat it. The dagger however, remained on the table, spinning it slowly. "I was looking for someone."

Ileeya didn't like his forwardness in sitting on the same small bench that she was on and she tried to scoot over to make some space. Unfortunately, she was already near the edge of the bench. "Who?" She glanced at Jelune asking with her eyes for him to move over so she could change to his bench.

"You."

Ileeya felt something gnaw at her gut as she took a second glance at the dagger he had on the table. From the corner of her eyes, she saw Jelune slowly pick Adorei up off his lap and his left leg came down. They were both growing more tense. She hesitated before replying. "Why?"

He stopped spinning the dagger and held it casually on the table with his left hand as he turned to her, his right arm draping behind her. He smiled, but the smile never reached his eyes. "As I said, business."

Jelune's eyes narrowed. With Adorei in his arms and his weapons out of reach, he was in no position to stop this rogue from doing anything. Still, he gave the elf a warning. "You have no business with my sister. I'd suggest you leave before I call the sentinels over."

Thorion gave a derisive laugh as his right arm moved to her shoulders. For the first time Ileeya and Jelune noticed he was holding a scroll of some sort in hid right hand. Ileeya had no idea what the scroll was for, but ascertained that it was not something she was going to be happy about. "Go ahead and call them," he said as his left hand lowered. She felt the dagger that was still in his hand press hard against her ribcage. Ileeya gasped in pain as the sharp blade cut through the cloth of her tunic and sliced into her skin. "We'll be gone before they can get here." With that, he shook open the scroll and began to read the words written on it. Jelune stood up to yell for the sentinels.

"Ileeya! Get away from him!" The voice was Kirlothenin's and despite the dagger pressed against her ribcage, she sluggishly tried to move away. She wasn't sure what was wrong with her as a fog seemed to suddenly permeate through her mind. His right arm felt like a vice around her shoulders. Ileeya tried to concentrate so that she could transform into her bear form. But before she could cast her spell to transform, the world glowed brightly and then shifted and she found herself no longer in Feathermoon Stronghold.

**...**

An arrow stuck into the table in front of where Thorion had just been sitting. Shandris' silver-blue eyes burned with anger at the audacity of the traitorous night elf coming into _her_ stronghold and taking someone under _her_ protection! She was even more upset that he got away with it. But not for long! "Sentinels to me!" She was about to turn to order the sentinels to track him down when she saw Kirlothenin raise a hand and approach the table.

"Wait! I can trace the teleport spell. I'm going to follow it." He paused only long enough to look at Shandris and Dormir. "You coming?"

Shandris gave a curt nod and saw Dormir do the same adding, "Jelune, stay here and protect Adorei!" As Kirlothenin grabbed their arms in each hand and started the spell, Shandris threw a look at the sentinel who had been assigned to follow Kirlothenin. The sentinel only gave one short nod in response to the silent order. She was to let the approaching sentinels know what happened and then stay with Jelune and Adorei. Kirlothenin's spell completed, and the three of them disappeared.

**...**

Ileeya blinked at the sudden bright sunlight. They were on a low mountain range. She had no idea where they were. Thorion pulled her roughly over to a black gryphon forcing her to climb on. Her mind was still fogged and she slowly came to the realization that his dagger must have had some sort of mind-numbing poison on it. Rogues often used various poisons on their daggers depending on what they needed to do. She tried her best to concentrate and cast her spell to cleanse herself of the poison.

A sound behind them caused Thorion to turn and let out a curse. He threw something at the newly arrived trio as the gryphon took off into the air. They went straight up and Ileeya felt her head finally clearing. She was about to turn herself into a bear when she realized how high up they were. Gryphons were strong animals, but hey couldn't support a huge bear on their backs. Thorion muttered something under his breath as he held her with one arm and reached for something in his satchel with his other arm.

**...**

Shandris took quick aim but had to duck to avoid getting hit by whatever the rogue had thrown at them. By the time she took aim again, the pair were already high in the air. Shooting the gryphon would only risk Ileeya falling to her death. And the gryphon's large body blocked most of the rogue. They would have to give chase but they had no flying mount with them! A screech near them caught her attention and she saw that Dormir had transformed into a large stormcrow and took off after them.

A mechanical sounding roar caused Shandris and Kirlothenin to turn and find that the object Thorion had thrown at them had become an elementium dragonling. They both had to dive out of the way as the dragonling shot a forked lightning bolt at them. They came up and Kirlothenin cast his frost nova just in time as the mechanical creature was about to snap it's sharp jaws at the mage. An arrow from Shandris pierced through the dragonling and it fell down. Electricity escaped from it for a couple of seconds before it lay still.

She glanced around and saw a tower nearby, a desert to the west and a jungle down below to the east. Silithus! This looked like Staghelm Point. "We need to get some flying mounts." She was about to suggest running to Cenarion Hold when the mage summoned a rolled up carpet and put it down on the ground to step on it. The carpet began to magically rise.

"Got one!" Kirlothenin said and held out his hand to help her step on. They could still see the gryphon and stormcrow in the distance and took off after them immediately. Shandris had to hold on to Kirlothenin's arm to keep her balance since she was unused to riding on a flying carpet.

**...**

Hoping to force him down, Ileeya cast her thorns spell on herself and heard a string of curses from Thorion as he automatically loosened his grip to keep from getting pricked by the thorns sprouting all over her skin. At that moment, the gryphon banked to the right as the stormcrow following them let out another screech. Ileeya hadn't been holding on very tightly and let out a terrified scream as she slipped off the animal's back. A gloved hand caught her wrist and she looked up to see that Thorion had grabbed her at the last second. But it was difficult to control the animal and pull a dangling elf with one hand.

Ileeya's legs dangled, kicking desperately as they tried to find something to hold on to. To her surprise, her feet touched something solid and she glanced down. Her father in his stormcrow form had caught up to them and was trying to give her some stability by flying underneath her. She reached with her foot, placing it on the stormcrow's broad back. Would he be able to support her weight? Her heart pounded as she felt him support some of her weight. It could work! Ileeya looked up at her wrist that was caught by Thorion and was about to pull loose when she saw him lift his other hand.

"NO!" It was too late! Thorion threw his knife and it hit Dormir firmly on the wing. The torn wing could no longer keep Dormir aloft. With a screech, the crow fell down towards the ground. "AN'DA!" Tears flowed as Thorion finally pulled her up and across the gryphon's back. Stunned at seeing her father fall towards his death, Ileeya hardly noticed the collar being placed around her neck and her thorny skin returning to normal.


	23. Chapter 23

"NO!...AN'DA!"

Shandris heard Ileeya's distant cry and watched as the stormcrow fell. She felt the carpet shift as Kirlothenin made a beeline for Dormir. They were over Un'Goro Crater now and the ground was coming up fast. She judged the distance between them and how fast Dormir was falling. "We're not going to make it in time!"

"The fel we won't!" Kirlothenin cast his blink spell and Shandris was suddenly alone on the carpet with no clue how to fly it! Kirlothenin, now having nothing to hold him up, let himself freefall until he was within range of casting his slow fall spell on Dormir and cast it first on the druid, then himself. Both of them immediately began to slow down their rate of descent so that they could land safely on the ground.

Once he saw Dormir was safely on the ground, he glanced up and raised his hand to his carpet, summoning it to him. Shandris couldn't help but smile. "Nice." Just as quickly as the smile came, however, it disappeared as she looked up at the disappearing gryphon. First thing was first, though. Once near the ground, she jumped off the flying carpet and checked on Dormir. He had resumed his regular form and was casting a healing spell on his injured shoulder. The wound healed, but the muscle was still weak. He won't be able to fly again soon. "Get on the carpet and let's get back after them!"

**...**

Ileeya lay across the gryphon's shoulders doing nothing. The image of her father falling was burned in her memory. She didn't know how long they had flown. She didn't care. She only had one thought on her mind. When the gryphon finally landed, she was pulled off and Ileeya attacked Thorion with her bare hands. "You killed him!" She screamed. "You killed my father!" She wanted to rip his face to shreds. Had she been able to shift into her cat form, she probably would have done just that. But with a new collar around her neck, she had only her fingernails, fists, and feet.

Ileeya blindly threw her punches until she suddenly felt her feet be swept out from under her. She fell onto her back and finally became aware of numerous laughing voices surrounding her. She glanced around to see the different members of the Ravenscale Order, many of whom had amused faces. When she looked up at Thorion, she saw that one of her attempts to hurt him at least worked as he had some blood on his cheek and an angry look on his face.

Ileeya ground her teeth and got up to attack him again. But, she wasn't allowed to have a second chance at him as hands grabbed both her arms and pulled her back. She struggled until she finally realized she wasn't going to break their hold. Her hateful gaze never left Thorion as his own frown turned into a wicked smile. He approached her, then punched her full in the stomach. Ileeya felt the breath go out of her and almost wondered if she would ever be able to breathe again as she gasped for air. Thorion grabbed her hair and forced her to look at his face which was two inches from hers. "The old elf made the mistake of getting too close. Just as you made the mistake of thinking you could get your little paws on me!" He let her hair go and turned away, but suddenly swung around and backhanded her across the face.

"Enough!" Ileeya had to wait for the pain to subside before she could open her eyes to see who had spoken. When she did, she saw Victor Doyle standing there. His scarred face held both triumph and disdain as he looked at her. His hand reached out, cupping her face. "You'll join your father soon enough, my dear. Soon enough." He then turned and walked away. "Prepare her!" Victor stopped by Thorion to have a few words with him.

Ileeya was dragged over to a rock outcropping and tied with rope to two metal rings that had been driven into the stone. Victor's words began to sink in as she started to realize the perilous situation she was in. She desperately struggled to escape as she watched Victor finish his conversation with Thorion. He drew his sword and approached her. She tried hard to think of some way to get out of this as fear crept into her very core. The only thing that came to her mind was when Jelune had taunted Kirlothenin after they had been caught. He had called the mage a coward.

With time running out, she could only try. "You're a coward!"

Doyle paused, an inquisitive look coming to his face, obviously not feeling threatened by the comment. "Oh? How so?"

She scraped for an excuse. "You...don't even fight me...give me a chance to defend myself. You need to tie me up to kill me! Just like a coward!"

To her surprise, he only laughed, along with some of his followers. He raised his sword, the tip of it just under her chin. "That's because this isn't a fight," he purred out before his voice turned ice cold. "It's an execution!" He then lowered his sword. Apparently he wasn't going to execute her right then. What was he waiting for?

"Nadine. We're expecting company. Please arrange for a...proper reception." He never looked at his second-in-command. Instead, he watched Ileeya's face as hope for rescue began to show itself in her expression. He smiled. "Don't worry, my dear. I've got plans for you." As he heard Nadine giving orders to the Ravenscale followers, he stepped over to a table under a canopy and picked up a small flask with an orange liquid in it. He then returned. "They'll come and, seeing you still alive, will think they were in time. But they will think wrongly." He showed her the flask.

"Poison. Somewhat slow-acting according to some, but fast enough to do the job. I'm told it takes only ten minutes to die." He opened the flask. "It needs to be consumed. I don't suppose you'd be a good little elf and drink it for me?" He glanced at her determinedly shaking her head and struggling to free herself. "I thought not." He motioned for two order members standing near by to come forward. "We'll be doing this the hard way. You know what to do."

Ileeya moved her head as much as she could to stop them, but they had the advantage. One grabbed her head to hold it still as the other pinched her nose. Ileeya struggled as she held her breath as long as possible. But her bodily instinct overcame her resistance and her mouth opened to take in a much needed breath of air. At that moment, Victor poured the contents of the flask into her mouth. Because she was in process of taking in air, she couldn't avoid swallowing the poison. Ileeya coughed and gagged and tried to will herself to regurgitate it, but she couldn't.

"There, that wasn't so bad, was it?" Victor patted her cheek and then walked over to Nadine as he unsheathed a second sword. Ileeya, for now, was left alone with the knowledge that there was nothing she could do. She had seen Shandris and Kirlothenin appear along with her father before Thorion had flown up into the sky with her. Even if they had been able to follow, neither of them could cleanse poison. But would they be able to rescue her and get the collar off so she could cleanse herself before the ten minutes was up?

Everyone seemed to suddenly go silent. All of the order members were looking around for a possible attack. Ileeya could hear a bird twittering in the distance. Every second seemed like an agonizingly long minute. If they were to come, they better come soon. Right now, it was the only hope she had.

"Bandu Thoribas!" The challenge meant 'Prepare to fight!' in Darnassian. Shandris Feathermoon had yelled her war cry just as she appeared over one of the mountain cliffs on a flying carpet. She was alone, but her bow shot two and three arrows at a time as she flew in an erratic pattern. The order members retaliated by either shooting their own weapons or casting spells. The carpet moved around in a circle as the defenders moved to get in a good position to attack the general. Without realizing it, many had moved to the side and hadn't noticed clouds gathering above them. Then in a flash, ice formed around the feet of those who had been moved aside as Kirlothenin appeared from his invisible state. He then cast a blizzard of ice shards just as a storm released it's winds and lightning bolts into the crowd.

But not all of the order had to deal with the magic-induced weather. Others began to attack including Thorion Nightblade who saw Kirlothenin and decided now was the opportunity for him to finish the second half of his job. While the mage was channeling his spell, Thorion took his dagger and threw it at him! The blizzard suddenly stopped as Kirlothenin grabbed his side where the dagger had plunged. He stumbled and fell backwards.

Seeing this, Shandris aimed her bow for Thorion and fired. The night elf's face went pale as the arrow buried itself into his shoulder. He cried out in pain and quickly turned to climb on his Gryphon's back. Shandris took aim again, but had to stop and dodge a fireball from Nadine. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw a man in black and brown clothing, and long black hair held back with a band in a ponytail. He looked like the Victor Doyle that Kirlothenin had talked about. Shandris aimed her bow at him and shot an arrow. With amazing speed, he used his swords to block the arrow and advance towards her.

Ileeya watched everything with a strange lethargy. Somewhere in the back of her mind, she knew the poison was starting it's work. She watched as Shandris shot another arrow towards Victor only to have it deflected by his swords once again. How can he do that? He must have some sort of magic or enhanced...something. Ileeya blinked as the edges of her vision began to grow fuzzy. Maybe she was hearing things as well as she thought she heard a saber cat's roar.

Kirlothenin grabbed the dagger that was buried in his left side. He started to pull the dagger out but had to stop and cast a spell to put himself in a temporary ice block as three order members attacked him. The hard ice around him kept him safe from their attacks, but it didn't last very long. He wasn't sure if he could fight them off once the ice block disappeared. A loud growl caught the attacker's attention as Dormir came over raising up on his hind legs in bear form. He swiped at the enemy and moved on to the next group, forcing them to back up away from Kirlothenin.

Shandris jumped back just in time to avoid Victor's sword. He was too close now to use her bow effectively and she quickly snatched the three-pronged warglaive she always wore at her side. She lifted it just in time to block another attack by Doyle. The two stood locked there for a moment and she saw Victor's eyes flicker to the left. He was checking on something. Suspecting someone approaching from that direction, Shandris pushed him back and moved to protect herself from any attacks in that direction. But there was none. As she looked, she saw Ileeya tied to a rock, her head hanging down as though she were unconscious.

Victor's laugh returned her attention to him, but he wasn't attacking. "You're too late! The poison has taken effect! You're battle was for nothing!" At this, he lunged forward once more, his swords spinning quickly. Shandris judged his speed and timed her jump at his feet at the last second. Surprised by this move, Victor tripped over her rolling form, falling forward, but catching himself. This was all the time Shandris needed as she grabbed an arrow from her quiver. Victor moved his swords up to block her shot. But instead of her shooting the arrow from her bow, she only held it as she pounced on him, forcing him to block her blow with her warglaive in her left hand while her right hand plunged the arrow into his neck. The look of shock on his face gave her a little satisfaction as she jumped up calling out, "Kir! Dormir! To me! Ileeya's dying!" At least, she hoped Ileeya was still alive.

Dormir shifted from his bear form and helped to pull Kirlothenin over to the corner where Shandris was using her warglaive to cut the ropes that were holding Ileeya up. Once loose from her ropes, Shandris had to catch her before she fell to the ground. She then turned in time to see Nadine pick up Victor's swords from his limp hands. "Hurry! Kir, can you teleport us out of here? We need to get some healing for her now!"

Kirlothenin nodded, although his face was ashen grey. He started speaking the spell as Nadine ordered the Ravenscale Order to finish them off. They came in for a final attack. But they were not fast enough as the four elves disappeared.

Nadine let out a curse then turned back to Victor. Looking down she saw the pool of blood slowly grow underneath him and the glassy look of death in his eyes. Victor Doyle was dead. She looked at the swords she had taken and raised them for the Order to see. "Victor is dead. I am now your leader!" She had his enchanted swords. It didn't matter that she didn't have the same skill to use them as Victor had. The order wouldn't question her leadership.

A blood elf approached, the same one who had so long ago recruited Kirlothenin to retrieve the egg. He was now the second-in-command. "What is your first order?"

Nadine considered her options. "We move. We are no longer secure here with Shandris Feathermoon knowing this location."

"What of the druid and mage who escaped?"

"Leave them be. They were Victor's folly. They won't be mine." She paused before adding, "But have a spy infiltrate Feathermoon Stronghold if they can. We need to keep an ear out for what the general knows about us." The blood elf nodded and disappeared to arrange for her orders to be carried out.

**...**

Tamlia walked out of the temple and turned to her right. She was headed to the herb shop to ask Firodren if he knew when Jelune would be returning from his trip. Her priestess studies took up much of her time, but when she had free time, she tended to seek his company. She started towards the small bridge that lead into Firodren's shop when a light suddenly flashed. Tamlia quickly turned around. In the place where none had been a moment before, she saw Shandris Feathermoon, Ileeya, Kirlothenin, and a druid she hadn't met before. Sentinels immediately came forward, their weapons drawn at the sight of the blood elf.

"Hold!" Shandris ordered the sentinels as she set Ileeya down in front of Dormir. "She's poisoned!" Immediately Dormir began his cleansing spell on his daughter. As he did so, Shandris looked at one of the sentinels. "Please bring Tyrande, she may be needed." As the sentinel took off, Shandris glanced at Kirlothenin who was now unconscious. The dagger had been pulled out, and he had lost alot of blood.

By this time, Firodren had come out to see what all the commotion was outside his shop. Standing next to Tamlia, his face paled as he saw his foster daughter lying there. "You there, priestess. Can you heal him?" Shandris recognized the robes of the novice and hoped she could do something until Tyrande showed up to help. Tamlia nodded and knelt down beside him, immediately beginning her prayerful spells of healing.

Another couple of minutes had passed and Dormir finally spoke as he paused in his spell. "Every time I think I got it all, I find some more! The poison had spread throughout much of her system." He cast a worried look at his daughter as he felt a hand on his shoulder.

"Try again," came the deep, but gentle voice of Malfurion Stormrage. "I'll help." Together they worked as Tyrande greeted her adopted daughter.

"What happened?" The high priestess asked looking over the small group. A crowd of curious onlookers was starting to form a circle around them.

Shandris only said, "I'll tell you later. My lady, can you help him?" She pointed at Kirlothenin and Tamlia who was doing her best to heal. Tyrande hesitated for only a second. He was a sin'dorei, after all. And she guessed that he was the same one that had been giving Ileeya trouble. But if Shandris wanted him healed, she would do so. She knelt next to Tamlia and observed her for a moment. She was doing a fine job already. Tyrande glanced at the closing wound. It was healing. But he had obviously lost alot of blood. Putting her own hand to his wound, she gave out a prayer to Elune to heal him.

"There." Malfurion and Dormir finished their cleansing of the poison and Dormir cast his healing spells over his daughter. They waited for a moment until Ileeya's skin returned to it's normal violet color and her breathing settled in to a deep sleep. "She needs time to recover."

"They both do." Tyrande and Tamlia had finished with Kirlothenin who was looking better as well. She asked some sentinels to come and help carry the two inside the temple to the back rooms where recovering patients often stayed. Tyrande didn't want them out in the open to be stared at. There was already murmuring in the crowd about the sin'dorei's presence.

**...**

"And the rest you know." Shandris finished updating Tyrande, Malfurion, and Firodren of all that had transpired with herself, Ileeya, Dormir, and Kirlothenin. Dormir sat in his daughter's room, waiting for her to awaken.

"Thank you for your help, General Feathermoon. If you'll excuse me, I would like to bring my son and Adorei back here." Firodren gave a short nod of respect towards the three and turned to go find Mehlumis.

"Just a moment." Shandris said to him. She looked back at her adopted parents. "It is good to see you again, but I have another matter to settle." Her voice grew grim as she spoke. "There's a certain traitorous night elf who needs hunting down." She looked at Firodren. "I'll go with you to the stronghold." With a quick nod from the herbalist, the two left together.

Tyrande nodded her head, only the faintest sign of worry crossed her face as the general turned and left. Shandris could very well take care of herself. But Tyrande would always be concerned for the one person in her life whom she cared the most about, aside from Malfurion. Stormrage knew this and he took her hand, giving it a slight squeeze. She looked up at him and gave him a brief smile, her mind quickly switching to another concern of hers. "Now, what exactly are we going to do about Kirlothenin?"


	24. Chapter 24

Ileeya felt the hand brush against her cheek and stirred. Her eyes fluttered open to see Kirlothenin sitting there. Blinking, she looked around with confusion. Where were they? She sat up thinking the room looked familiar, but unsure where she had seen it before. "You're safe, Ileeya. We're in Darnassus." Kirlothenin's voice was soft as he smiled at her.

Slowly, the memories of her recent events came to her. She had been poisoned. Obviously they had gotten to her in time. Her mind went further back and she stiffened. "Papa." Her voice was a whisper as she recalled the sight of her father falling. Grief overcame her and she buried her face in her hands.

Kirlothenin reached out to remove her hands from her face, "He's okay. He's alive."

Ileeya looked at him in disbelief. "Father is...alive?"

The mage smiled and nodded his head. "Yes. Shandris and I reached him in time."

Ileeya was so happy, without thinking, she wrapped her arms around him in a big hug. "Thank you! Thank you!" Kirlothenin wrapped his own arms around her, relishing the moment, knowing it won't last. As soon as he felt her pull away, he dropped his arms. "I'm...sorry. I just-" She stopped herself, feeling awkward.

"It's okay." He gave her a smile and then stood up and walked to the other side of the room to give her space. Dormir had been sitting with Ileeya until he had been summoned by Stormrage. Tamlia had resumed her duty to take care of Ileeya without being asked by Tyrande. When Kirlothenin asked her if he could spend some time alone with Ileeya, she said she would step just outside the room. There were wards up to prevent teleportation in this part of the temple. But she didn't think that was necessary. She saw how the blood elf looked at Ileeya.

Subconsciously, Kirlothenin rubbed his side where the dagger had hit him as he watched Ileeya. When he had seen her disappear with Thorion, one thing had suddenly become crystal clear in his mind. He was in love with her. He had been for awhile now, but found it hard to admit to himself. He hadn't thought it possible for her to love him back, however. Not after what he had done. But the hug she just gave him filled him with a glimmer of hope. Maybe, just maybe, he could change her mind about him.

"What's with the grin? And stop staring at me." Ileeya was beginning to feel uncomfortable.

"I'm smiling because I'm glad you're alive." At her dubious look, he chuckled. "Victor Doyle is dead. Shandris has left to hunt down Thorion Nightblade. Your dad isn't going to go all bear form on me anymore. Life's good."

Ileeya couldn't help but smile, then realized he hadn't mentioned their daughter. "Where's Adorei?" She looked around the room, even though she had perused it earlier.

"Jelune and Firodren have her. They'll be here soon."

Ileeya stood up, feeling a little weak, but was able to support herself. She was starting to feel more and more uncomfortable and began to realize it was because of him. "I'd like to be alone."

Kirlothenin's smile faded a little. "I'm not going to hurt you, Ileeya."

She glanced at him, unsure if that was why she was feeling the way she was. "You couldn't anyway, not here in the temple." She had recalled this room as being the one she was in when Tyrande had tried to help her get her memory back. "Are you a prisoner of the sentinels?" She wondered how, in fact, they had come here.

Kirlothenin thought for a good long moment before speaking. "I don't know. And I don't care." At Ileeya's look of surprise, he stepped forward, but still kept himself at arms length, his voice grew softer. "I thought I had lost you, Ileeya. I can't go through that again. Even if it means I remain a prisoner for the rest of my life, I would stay by your side."

Ileeya automatically stepped back when he came forward. She was surprised at his words and had no idea how to respond. She swallowed and wrapped her arms around herself. She couldn't look at him as she tried to sort through her own thoughts and emotions. Everything was a jumble. "I- "

He put a finger up to her lips. "Shh. Don't say anything right now. Just know that I care about you. More than that... I'm in love with you, Ileeya Whitestar." He then turned and walked to the door. Before he opened it, he looked back at her. "I know I've asked much from you in the past, and it's crazy for me to ask this, but I must. Don't reject me right away. At least consider the possibility." He then walked out the door.

Ileeya had to sit down. She sat on the bed and just stared at a spot on the floor, hardly aware that Tamlia had come in a moment later and sat next to her. Finally, the priestess asked her, "Are you okay?"

Ileeya blinked and looked at her friend. "I'm...very confused."

Tamlia nodded her head. "I thought as much."

A realization came over Ileeya as she looked at the novice priestess. "You knew."

Tamlia shook her head. "I suspected. I did not know." She put her hand on Ileeya's. "Talk to me."

**...**

Dormir returned to Ileeya's room and was very happy to see she had finally woken up. He was even more happy to receive her big hug. He returned it and smiled down at his daughter then put on his best 'father' tone of voice. "You are officially not allowed to scare me like that anymore, Ileeya."

"And you are not allowed to scare me either!"

They sat down and Dormir became more serious. "What are your plans, now, Daughter?"

Ileeya sighed. "I don't know. I guess, I just keep going." She frowned as she thought about Adorei. "I'm concerned with raising Adorei, An'da. I don't know if I want her here in Darnassus. I mean, I wouldn't mind it so much if she were...well, like other kids." She didn't want her daughter's more unique parentage to be a stepping stone to her development. But she knew the more reserved and older of the night elven society will look down on Adorei because of her father.

"You can't help who she is." Dormir sat back with a sigh. "Remember our old house?" Ileeya nodded. They hadn't lived there for years. When Teldrassil was planted and magically grown by Fandral Staghelm and the druids of the Cenarion Circle, many kaldorei moved their residence from Moonglade, Ashenvale, and Darkshore to the new capital city of Darnassus. The Whitestar and Mooncaller families had joined in the great move. "I never sold it."

Ileeya raised an eyebrow. "Why?" In a way, she was glad to hear it. The only memories she had of her mother were in that old house.

Dormir shrugged. "I never got around to it. Maybe sentimental reasons held me back." He smiled. "The point is, it's still there in Moonglade not being used by anyone." There was a knock at the door and the elder druid stood up. "Maybe it's time that old house saw some use again." He opened the door and there stood Jelune with Adorei. Ileeya jumped up and took her daughter, very happy to see her again.

Jelune excused himself from the room. Tamlia was standing outside allowing for father and daughter to spend some time together. Ileeya smiled, glad her foster brother was getting along so well with her new friend. As usual, Adorei nudged and squirmed to indicate she was hungry. Ileeya put a light blanket over her shoulder and Adorei and allowed the baby to nurse. She frowned as she thought about Kirlothenin. Would he be able to see his daughter again if he is a prisoner? "Father? Do you know what's going to happen to Kirlothenin? Is he under arrest?"

"Funny you should ask." Dormir sat in a chair and sighed. "That's why Malfurion had summoned me. He and High Priestess Whisperwind were trying to decide what to do about him."

Ileeya looked at Dormir with confusion. "What are the options they're considering?"

"Well, there's the counts of offenses he's done against you. And one against Jelune. But they have also taken into account the fact that he's risked his life to save you, and that he had saved me from falling. Then, of course, there's the fact that he's a member of the Horde."

She adjusted her seated position to make herself more comfortable. "And?"

The elder druid looked at her for a moment and seemingly changed the subject. "Kirlothenin and I had a...chat while you were still recovering." Ileeya remained silent, but watched her father. "Has he...talked to you yet?"

Ileeya nodded. Dormir waited for her to say something and she determined that Kirlothenin may have told her father about his...feelings. "He-" she cleared her throat. "He, uh, said he, um cares about...me." For some reason, she couldn't look him in the eyes when she said this.

Dormir watched his daughter. He watched her facial expression and her body language. "He told me he loved you."

Ileeya looked down and pretended to adjust Adorei's position. "What did you say?"

"It doesn't matter my reaction right now. What matters is yours." He was still intently watching her.

Ileeya sighed. "I don't know. My only reaction is confusion, Father."

"Hm." He rubbed his bearded face. "You're going to have to figure it out, Ileeya. He's the father of your daughter. You'll be seeing him no matter how you feel."

Ileeya eyed him. "I thought you hated him. And didn't want him around us."

Dormir shrugged. "I still hate what he did to you. And if he hadn't taken you in the first place, you never would have come so near to death. But," he leaned forward, "he risked his life to save you. And he saved my life. That does tend to...alter one's view."

Ileeya adjusted her tunic and brought Adorei up to her shoulder, rubbing and patting her back. A light knock sounded at the door right before Tamlia opened it and looked inside. "More company," she announced before moving back to let Malfurion Stormrage enter.

If Ileeya felt intimidated by Broll Bearmantle, she was doubly so with the appearance of the first druid. She stood and gave him a nod of respect. Dormir, likewise stood and moved over to stand next to his daughter. Stormrage looked at the both of them and smiled. "Ileeya, and...Adorei?" He gave a look at the infant she held. Ileeya moved Adorei so that he could see her daughter. "May I?" He held out his hands in askance of holding the infant and Ileeya handed her to him.

Stormrage carefully took the infant and smiled, studying her face. "She's beautiful, Ileeya." After a minute of studying Adorei's features he handed her back to her mother. "I'm here in regards to that child's father." Ileeya glanced at her father then back at Malfurion. "I would like to hear of your adventures from your perspective."

Ileeya sat down again. This was going to take some time. She recounted to him much of her adventures from Darkshore to Booty Bay and her time in Dustwallow Marsh. She skimmed over parts she did not feel comfortable discussing and continued until her recent return to Darnassus.

Malfurion listened attentively and watched her as she spoke. When she was done, he commented, "You are a very strong elf, Ileeya."

Ileeya looked at him in surprise. "I don't think so. I can't seem to defend myself. I freeze with fear, I make wrong decisions..."

A low rumble of a laugh came from Stormrage. "You are a young druid. There are many things you can only learn from experience. Learning to control your fear will come over time. As for defending yourself, your way lies along the restorative path. You are not a fighter by nature. You are a healer." He reached out and put a hand on her shoulder. "A wise person recognizes their weak points and accepts the help of others in those points."

He then removed his hand and stepped back. "I just have one question for you. I can understand capturing him so that he could not take your daughter from you. But why did you choose to live with him?"

Ileeya wasn't sure she could answer this question. "I'm...not sure. I suppose I could have given him to Lady Proudmoore to hold and then brought Adorei to visit him." She fell silent as she thought this over. "Perhaps it was his plea for the child in the first place. Maybe a part of me wanted him to be the father he seemed to want to be. But I didn't know if he would be a good father to Adorei."

"And now?"

She glanced at the archdruid. "Now...I believe him to be a dedicated father. He does seem to have her best interests at heart."

"Thank you, Ileeya, for talking to me about this. I've just come from talking with Kirlothenin as well." He glanced from father to daughter. "His official status right now is house arrest. He was not put into prison due to his heroic effort of rescuing you and your father. He's not allowed to leave the temple until he is fully recovered. Afterwards, he is expected to leave Darnassus. Tyrande and I have talked this over and we both agree that his presence in this city will cause only disruption and trouble."

Ileeya suddenly became concerned about Adorei. Would she be expected to give up her daughter to Kirlothenin? "So, he's going to be let go and return to Silvermoon City?"

"No. He'll still be under house arrest. He just won't be in Darnassus." At Ileeya's look of confusion, Malfurion gave a small smile. "Your father helped solve this issue by offering your old home in Moonglade for this purpose. There, you and Adorei can still live under the same roof as Kirlothenin if that is your wish. He will not wear a magic-prevention device unless he proves himself untrustworthy. In which case, more measures than that will be taken. He will be expected to remain at your home or a shop he will work in. A Moonglade warden will be assigned to stay with him should he need to travel elsewhere and permission must be given by either myself, Broll, or Rabine Saturna if he is to travel outside of Moonglade."

"His house arrest is for an indefinite period of time. He has done many crimes against you and at least one against Jelune Mooncaller. Although he has made up for it in part by his recent actions, we cannot automatically trust him. As time passes and he proves his trustworthiness, the restrictions will come off. This all, of course, depends upon your agreement to the deal."

"Has he agreed to this?"

"He has."

Ileeya recalled Kirlothenin's words earlier. _'Even if it means I remain a prisoner for the rest of my life, I would stay by your side.'_ She looked down at Adorei. It certainly seemed to be a good solution, quite similar to one she, herself, had come up with. Ileeya briefly wondered if that is why Malfurion had suggested it. However, there is now a difference. There was the issue of his feelings for her and her own...reluctance to accept them. Ileeya studied Adorei's face. She had the blue eyes of a high elf, as well as the more erect ears. But her skin was a light violet like her own. She had made a decision to raise this child to know both her heritages and take pride in both. She would need her father in her life. _'I would stay by your side._' The words came again inside her head. There was something comforting in those words, despite her own reticence. "I agree to the terms."

**...**

_Just Over A Week Later..._

Kirlothenin stepped out of the building and turned to the warden waiting there. "I need to go for a walk." The warden merely nodded his head and followed about ten feet away, giving the blood elf his space. The mage was obviously tense. They had moved into the house that was located just outside the town of Nighthaven in Moonglade seven days ago. There was some cleaning needed, but with diligence he, Ileeya, and Dormir got the job done. Dormir, it seems was going to live with them at least for the time being. His duty to the Emerald Dream was temporarily suspended so he could spend time with his new granddaughter.

Both Kirlothenin and Ileeya worked for a night elf druid named Malvor. Like Firodren, he trained others in the art of herbalism. Ileeya learned from him and also grew herbs to sell to various customers. Kirlothenin had a small corner of the store to sell his own alchemical supplies as well as train others who were new to the profession. With Moonglade being a neutral territory, they had customers from both the Horde and the Alliance.

He had no problem with the house. He had no problem with Dormir living there. He had no problem with his new job or location. In fact he would enjoy them all, if Ileeya wasn't avoiding him like the plague. Oh, she was civil. She talked to him as long as someone else was there. Otherwise, she found any excuse she could to not speak to him alone. Just a moment ago, when he had tried to speak to her, she claimed she had to go to learn from Loganaar, who had taken over her druidic training from Denatharion.

His walk took him from Malvor's shop to the outskirts of town. Once there, he decided to go check on Adorei. Dormir looked after her sometimes while the two of them worked. Other times they just brought Adorei with them to the shop. He stepped into the house while his warden shadow remained outside. Dormir was there rocking her cradle and made shushing motions to indicate the infant had just fallen asleep and not to make a sound. He pointed to the back door and they both stepped outside.

"What brings you home at this time?"

"I needed some space."

"Still avoiding you, I see."

Kirlothenin gave him a sidelong glance and nodded.

"I wonder if I should ask Jelune to come stay for a bit."

This seemed a bit out of the blue and Kirlothenin turned to him. "Why?"

Dormir in turn faced the blood elf. "Protection."

"That's _my_ job now." Kirlothenin gave him a glare. The two of them had gotten along fine after Ileeya's rescue. So this questioning of his abilities was a bit of a surprise to him.

"Is it? Hm...I did seem to think you were a fighter, but now I'm not so sure."

"Just what are you getting at, old elf?"

"You have to fight for her, Kirlothenin."

"I did. I saved her life, remember?"

"I didn't say you had to fight for her life. You have to fight for her heart."

Kirlothenin gave him a hard stare as Dormir's words sunk in. "Why are you encouraging me in this regard?"

"I want my daughter to be happy. Right now, she isn't. She's fighting her own internal battle. Ileeya has at least some feelings for you, Kirlothenin, or else she would have turned you down right away. But she struggles with her knowledge of your past deeds and her own emotions regarding you."

Kirlothenin suddenly recalled the time he had studied Ileeya's face in Zoram'Gar Outpost. _She was fine if it was a burst of adrenaline. But the more time she had to think about her fears, the more her fears took hold of her._ Realization hit him at that moment. That was his mistake. He had given her too much time to think about her feelings. A smile came over his face as he began to form a plan. "I'll need your help."

Dormir nodded and the two discussed Kirlothenin's plan. At first, Dormir didn't like the plan, but as Kirlothenin explained it and went into more detail, the elder druid agreed with it.

**...**

Ileeya arrived at home to find that dinner had been cooked by her father or Kirlothenin, she wasn't sure which. The two were setting the table and she asked the blood elf where he went to that afternoon. "Oh, I just had some things to take care of. Dormir helped." With nothing to do until dinner was ready, Ileeya spent some time playing with Adorei. Dinner held some pleasant conversation about superficial stuff as usual.

After dinner, Dormir took Adorei claiming he wanted to go for a walk and figured the walk would help her sleep. When Ileeya suggested she walk with them, he declined, saying he wanted to walk alone for a bit. Before she could protest, he was out the door. Finding herself alone with Kirlothenin, she decided to go upstairs to her room. He can't bring up unwanted topics of conversation if she wasn't there.

To her surprise, he opened her door and walked in, shutting the door behind him. "Kirlothenin! I want to be alone."

His only response was to mutter some words and his water elemental appeared.

Ileeya froze as she saw the creature. Unwanted memories of the thing came to her. She gave the blood elf an uncertain look. "What's going on?"

His tone of voice was neutral. "What do you think is going on?" He moved towards her slowly.

She stepped back. "You're scaring me, Kirlothenin."

He paused. "Why? Don't you trust me?"

Her eyes darted between him and the water elemental. "Not when you act like this."

He waited a moment before saying, "Fair enough." He then pulled something out from behind him and she recognized the collar that Thorion had used on her. The lock had been broken by Shandris' warglaive. But a new one had been fixed onto it and she gave Kirlothenin a distrustful look. However, he didn't put it on her. To her surprise, he put it on himself, then handed her the key.

She had a baffled expression on her face, but he had one more thing to show her before he explained. Kirlothenin turned and opened the door. The tauren warden stood there. Normally, he didn't come into the house. Kirlothenin was finally ready to explain. "He's here on my request." He asked the warden, "Can you please tell her what I asked of you for tonight?"

The warden glanced at Ileeya. "I'm to stay here. You can call for me at anytime. If I hear anything wrong, I'm to come in and help you." He spoke matter-of-factly.

"Thank you, Grendon." He closed the door and turned to Ileeya. "I'm staying here. All night." At her protests, he raised his arms. "I can't hurt you. I don't have my magic, and you can easily defend yourself against me physically in your bear or cat form. Plus," He turned to the elemental and gave it his orders. "You are to protect Ileeya should I ever attack her. Oh, and if she attacks me, do nothing." He then turned back to her and crossed his arms in front of his chest.

Ileeya stared at him like he was crazy. "I don't want you here! Get out!" She was incensed at his audacity.

He shook his head. "I won't do that. Not until we talk."

She crossed her arms. "I'll just wait for Father to get back with Adorei."

Kirlothenin smiled. "Why do you think he went out?"

Ileeya was shocked. "You mean he's in on this?" At his nod she fumed and turned her back on him.

Two hours later, she still hadn't spoken, but her anger had fizzled out. She turned around to see him sitting on the floor with his back against the wall, waiting patiently. She sighed and closed her eyes. "Why?" He looked at her. "Why are you insisting on doing this?"

"We need to talk about this."

She raised a long eyebrow. "By going through all of this?" She waved her arm towards the elemental.

"It was necessary, yes." He stood up and stretched his back.

"Why was it necessary?"

"Because you haven't forgiven me. Because you still have your doubts. Because, as proved earlier, you don't trust me. And you don't trust yourself."

She blinked at this. "How is this going to help?" She meant to have more sarcasm in her voice, but it didn't come out that way.

He took a step forward. "It's to prove I'll go through whatever it takes to get you to realize how we feel about each other."

"I never said-"

"-That you have feelings for me? You do. You just won't acknowledge it." He took another step forward.

She was feeling confused again. Her heart beat hard in her chest and she refused to look at him. Did she really care about him? She shook her head. "_I_ don't even know how I feel. How can you?"

"Because I know you, Ileeya. If you take too much time to think things through, you start to become confused and your fears start to take over. That's what's happening to you now. You fear that I haven't really changed, or that I will end up hurting you, or that your trust is misplaced in me. I don't blame you for that, Ileeya. I gave you plenty of reasons not to trust me. But in the meantime, you gave me more reasons to fall in love with you. And I tell you now, I am sorry for everything I've done to you. If I could take it back, I would. But I can't."

By this time, he was standing right in front of her. Ileeya felt unable to move, she was so unsure of herself right now. "You're too close. I can't think."

His hand reached up and caressed her cheek. His voice a whisper. "Don't think. Feel." He took her hand and held it flat against his chest. She could feel the fast-paced heartbeat underneath. He then placed her hand over her own heart. It was beating at the same pace as his own. She glanced up at his face. Kirlothenin leaned in, his lips just barely brushed hers. He pulled back just far enough so that his eyes could search hers. But he couldn't do that because her eyes were closed and she was shivering. He wrapped his arms around her and leaned in again, this time slowly deepening the kiss. There was a moment of stiff hesitation, then she seemed to melt into the kiss and her arms circled around him.

As much as he didn't want to end the kiss, he finally pulled back and looked deep into her eyes. "Now. Will you give me a chance?"

Ileeya slowly nodded her head. He wasn't asking her to admit love. The kiss made her realize that she did indeed care about him more than she realized. But she wasn't ready to admit love just yet. There was more that needed to be said and done. She sat down in a chair. "I guess we talk then." She indicated for him to sit in the other chair. Kirlothenin smiled broadly and sat down.

* * *

><p><strong>The End<strong>

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><p><em>Author's Note:<em>

_Yeah, the ending seems kinda abrupt. But it felt too drawn out if I had continued on with their taking walks and telling each other all about themselves and doing all the rest that would show Ileeya falling more in love. I didn't want to bring in any more dangerous situations as I felt they've been through enough...for now at least. ;)_ _If people really like the characters, I _*may_* bring them back in a sequel later if I have time_. _For now, I have other story idea's to flesh out. Thank you for taking the time to read this. I hope it was enjoyable even though I'm sure I've made a variety of mistakes. ~Similyn  
><em>


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